Butcher the Baker and CandleStick Maker
by myboygeorge
Summary: It's Beckett's first case back after her maternity leave, but little did she anticipate two gruesome murders being linked to her friends' wedding.  Crumbsian, M for murder mystery scenes, implied sex, and language
1. The Discovery

The December air was surprisingly mild, especially since the sun had barely been up for less than ninety minutes. Nonetheless, Sean Thurston was thankful for his parka from his wife - an early Christmas present to keep him warm when he patrolled his park. He always thought of Herman Park as his park, since he was head of security and it was his job to make sure the tranquil green enclosure stayed safe in a city rife with crime. The neighbourhood wasn't exactly the Upper West Side ritzy-ditzy estates but Tudor City was a safe area to raise a family; part of that was having a safe spot for the mothers and young women to go for a run or take their children for a play-date without the potential of being raped or seeing drug-deals go down.

Two-way clipped to his belt, Thurston made his way to the north-west foot-path, one of the most popular places where the early-morning joggers liked to start their daily run, and wasn't surprised to find a slender female form on the bench already. He knew it was female from the hair-style, even guys with long hair that he knew weren't going to style it in a French braid. Okay, maybe on a drunken dare, but not to wear out of the house with their overcoats. He would have walked past her, had it not been for the fact he noticed she was wearing no coat. It was a nice morning, but not that nice.

'Ma'am,' he called out, 'you need a warm-up?'

When he got no answer, his concern grew. Maybe she was mentally ill, or deaf and couldn't hear him. Checking his watch to make sure he wasn't going to be behind schedule, Thurston stepped off the foot-path into three inches of fresh snow that gushed under his heavy instep.

'Ma'am,' he repeated and still received no answer. His hand went for his zipper to offer her his jacket - his mama had raised a gentleman, after all - and his fingers tightened on the lapels as he let out a sharp cry.

'Oh! Jesus!'

The woman - or what had been a woman - was the pasty colour of wallpaper glue where she wasn't swollen up with bruises on her face. Around her throat was a length of white silk, tied in a grotesquely cheerful bow under her chin.

'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,' Thustron rambled, fumbling for his two-way. He keyed the channel to the police radio dispatch. 'This is Thurston at Herman Park, I have a dead body here and need homicide here immediately.'

* * *

><p>Across town and slightly south, Beckett was scraping up the last of her strawberry infused oatmeal from the bowl and reaching for her jacket while Castle wiped a cloth over RJ's mouth.<p>

'Man, RJ, you really know how to get your breakfast everywhere, don't you?' Castle teased his son, then gave his wife the once-over. 'Look who's back on the beat. Very sharp, Detective. You want to play Interrogation later?'

'We'll see.' But the idea of first-day-back celebration sex was a happy thought to keep her warm as she braved the early December streets of Manhattan. Spinning once for their inspection, Beckett leaned in, kissed her boys good-bye. 'Okay, my little prince, time for Mommy to go to work.'

'Dash baddies?'

'That's right, I have to go catch some baddies.'

'See soon?'

'Yes, I'll see you soon.' Beckett kissed her son goodbye, then her husband. It was going to be very weird to not have Castle there hovering and spinning theory with her, but then it was also going to be weird to come home to her baby, too. 'And I'll seee you tonight for dinner too.'

'Don't forget your frame, Detective,' Castle reminded her, handing her the digital picture frame Lanie had given her for her birthday that she'd loaded with shots of her children.

'It's already in my bag. Love you guys.'

'Love Mumum.'

'Love you too, honey,' Castle added, and when she'd gone, he looked at RJ. 'You ready to start working on our little surprise for Mommy?'

'Le's go!'

'I'll take that as a yes.'

* * *

><p>When Beckett stepped off the elevators at the Twelfth, it was a different kind of homecoming. She'd anticipated people looking at her differently, after all she hadn't been there in over a year, but all she could see were the silly looking flowers on her desk. She put her digital photo frame beside her phone and sighed impatiently.<p>

'Richard, I oughta slug you,' she muttered, going to her space and snatching the card off the case. She changed her tune when she saw it was from the rest of the Homicide floor - Ryan and Esposito, and Karpowski, Newman and Geoffs, even Montgomery's name were all there too.

'Thought you might get a kick out of that,' Ryan told her, bringing her a cup of coffee. 'Everyone likes flowers.'

'A friendly wave would have been enough.' But Beckett knew she'd take them home with her with a proud and foolish grin on her face. 'So, what's going on, what are you and I working on right now?'

'I've just finished up with a couple of cold cases, so we're working through the backlog of paper on that.'

Beckett nodded, then picked up her desk phone when it rang. 'Beckett. Okay. Yep, got it,' she said, writing down an address and hanging up the phone. 'Not anymore, we caught a fresh one.'

'Sweet. Well, you know what I mean,' Ryan amended hastily when she turned around and pinned him with a stare. 'Good to have you back.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	2. The Twist

The detectives arrived at Herman Park in Tudor City at just past eight-thirty, and could see they'd tagged Lanie for the case; it was the first time Beckett would get to work with her friend in over a year. The petite doctor was wrapped in a bright red jacket, and her toque was sprinkled with the Montreal Canadiens logo. She glanced up at the approaching footsteps and her face split in a grin when she saw Beckett.

'Welcome back, mama, barely fifteen minutes on shift and you get a body.'

'Morning to you too, Doctor Parrish. What do we have here?'

'Fiona Birk, forty-one, strangled with a length of white silk.' Lanie looked up from her clipboard, pointed with her pen. 'Lividity and body pooling suggests she's only been here a few hours, but her liver temp when you factor in the elements puts her TOD between midnight and two last night. And there's this.' She swabbed the encrustation by the victim's mouth, passed it to the detective. 'Take a sniff.'

Beckett did so, blinked. It was sugary sweet. 'Almond paste?'

'Buttercream frosting. Fiona's a cake-maker for Hat-Trick Catering. They do a lot of weddings.'

'So clearly someone wasn't happy with just a mocha-fudge fondant,' Ryan said dryly, earning looks from the rest of his co-workers. 'You don't think someone strangled her because they didn't get her as a wedding caterer and decided if they couldn't have her no one could? That seems a little extreme.'

'I've learned that if a bride is so inflexible as to resort to murder, it's not about the marriage, it's about the party.' Beckett turned to her temporary partner. 'Now, if some little bitch purposely ruined a dress because someone got to it before her, I think I'd call that justifiable homicide.'

'Between giving birth and the ability to call murder over a dress justifiable homicide, I'll never understand how women get called the weaker sex.'

'What, no comments on high heels as torture devices?'

Ryan pointed to her feet. 'That's self-incflicted insanity, especially you, though not today it seems.'

'My ankles can't handle the pumps yet. Anyways.' Beckett looked around. 'You talk to the first on-scene, I'm going to talk to park security.'

'Got it.'

* * *

><p>Sean Thurston's wide cocoa-coloured face was serious as he pulled the discs and began to make copies for Beckett when she showed herself into the security booth of the park.<p>

'My park is a safe place, yo. Mamas and babies and young women come here on their own because it's safe. I ain't gonna have no dead white girl mucking up my rep that I didn't do my job,' he told her sternly.

'I understand sir. Miz Birk was not killed there, someone put her here because they wanted her found.'

'She wasn't here between seven and eight, and as soon as I saw her, I called it in.'

'That's good. Was there anything out of the ordinary besides the body on the bench?'

'Honestly Detective, once I saw the lady there, I got my guys to block off the entrances to the park and get anyone in there quarentined in case y'all needed to talk to them.'

'Good work, Mister Thurston.'

'Here we are.' Thurston passed her the copies of the discs. 'Anything on there looks fishy, you tell me.'

* * *

><p>When Beckett arrived back at the precinct after having notified the family of Fiona Birk, she began to write up her murder board with what they knew already. A few minutes later, the elevator dinged and Beckett saw Andrea Hennessey and Daniel Brick step off both looking absolutely destroyed; as they were two of the most even-keeled people Beckett knew, she capped her dry-erase marker and went over to them right away.<p>

'Andrea, Daniel? What's wrong?'

'Can we talk in private for a moment?' Andrea asked, hitching the strap of a laptop bag onto her shoulder.

'Sure.'

Beckett showed them into a conference room where Andrea pulled out the MacBook.

'I got a very disturbing email this morning.' Andrea spun the computer towards Beckett. 'It's an email with a video attachment.'

She nodded, then pressed the 'play' button to start the video.

And her blood went cold.

It was a warehouse, lit with dank blue and dirty white lights that cast the eerie pale palour of death over everything it touched. At the centre of the desolate, barren space was Fiona Birk in her underwear and showing signs of torture in the form of a bruised face, torso and thighs and bloody nose. Tears streamed from red eyes as she begged for it to stop.

'_Please don't do this, what has she done?'_ Fiona sobbed. Off-screen, a soft unisex voice answered back with a chilling detachment.

_'Andrea is not suppose to get married. A fat bitch-whore like her does not deserve a man like Daniel. Now I have to show her what happens when she breaks the rules.'_

_'I don't even know who Andrea is.'_

The woman whimpered as the owner of the unisex voice stepped into frame, covered in black head to foot with a red-hot poker in hand, then screamed when it was laid against the side of her throat. As the screen faded to black with Fiona's cries for it to stop became the sound-track to the overlay of text. The words were in oversized font a bright, ugly red, all but screaming at the recipient:

ANDREA CALL OFF THE WEDDING IMMEDIATELY OR TOMORROW ANOTHER ONE DIES.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	3. The Plan of Attack

Beckett said nothing at first, just let herself absorb it. 'Andrea, I need to take this computer into evidence.'

'Oh God, it's real?' Daniel gripped Andrea's hand tightly.

'I'm afraid so. This woman was found this morning in Herman Park.'

'Oh Jesus. Jesus, I-' Andrea broke off, dissolved into sobs. 'Why? Why would someone do this to her? I barely even knew her.'

'How did you meet her?'

'Daniel and I were at a Christmas party and I talked to Fiona about getting more information on her wedding reception menus. I gave her my email address and told her to get in touch with me. I though the email this morning was her giving me an appointment time.'

'This was her email address?'

Andrea nodded. 'Her company's email. It's why I thought nothing of it; it said 'wedding information' in the subject line.'

'Okay.'

'The techs don't have to strip the hard-drive do they?' Daniel asked warily. 'We've got some personal stuff on there, you know?'

'They'll only look at what's pertinent to the case, in this instance, the email you just showed me.'

'We're not calling off the wedding,' Daniel said firmly.

'No,' Andrea agreed. 'We do that, they have all the power, and they win, whoever they are, right?'

Beckett nodded. They were tough, no question, and very aware of the situation. 'I'm going to advise you to not discuss anything wedding related over the internet until this matter is resolved, no matter how insignificant it might seem. In fact, tell all your contacts from your phones your account was hacked so any emails from you or contacts claiming to know you should be considered suspicious.'

'Right. No point in saying what the read story is, that'll just cause a panic.'

There was a knock on the door and Ryan stuck his head in. 'Am I interrupting?'

'Detective you need to be here,' Beckett said solemnly.

The tone in her voice had Ryan coming in and shutting the door behind him. 'What's going on?'

'Andrea and Danie have evidence pertaining to our new case.' Beckett pressed the play button on the laptop as her partner sat down and studied the on-screen footage; she didn't blame the bride and groom to be for looking away.

When Ryan sat back, he said nothing, just stared a little. 'I'm so sorry you had to see that.'

'But wasn't that the point?' Andrea asked, knuckling under her eyes at the tears that had fallen fresh while listening to the woman, a woman she and her fiancee only knew in passing, beg for her life. 'It's meant to scare us, maybe think we shouldn't go to the police.'

'Then they under estimated us,' Daniel said.

'We're going to have to ask you some questions but I can hold off until our forensics team examines your laptop. In the meantime you should try and go about your day as normally as possible,' Beckett advised. 'And I know this will be hard but you can't talk about it. The fewer people who know the better so that we can get to the bottom of this.'

'You can talk to us about it, though.' Ryan could see the anxiety in their eyes and was suddenly thrown back six years when he and Esposito had to tell Meredeth that the Bodega Stalker was actually stalker. 'Why don't you come over for dinner? We're having a little Jenny's first-day-back at our apartment, come and visit if you don't want to be alone.'

'That's lovely, thank you.' Andrea paused. 'Can you do that?'

'You're as much the victims here as the woman in the video, I don't see any reason you should be denied friendship in a time of need.'

'And spending time with Dell and Mallory would be a great way to take your mind off of things,' Beckett added. She nearly reached for her pocket where she kept a few of her contact cards, then remembered that Andrea was already in her Blackberry. 'You think of anything case related, call me. And if you need a supportive ear, call me.'

'And if you need your dry cleaning picked up, call her,' Ryan teased. The joke hit its target in trying to lighten the mood ever so slightly, and they all stood up from the table.

'We'll get this back to you as soon as we can, Andrea. I'm going to call you sometime this afternoon after we get this back from our forensic techs.'

'Thanks Kate. Or, sorry, Detective.'

Beckett and Ryan watched the couple go, and weren't surprised when Montgomery stepped out of his office just in time to see them step onto the elevator. He looked down the bullpen at his detectives and walked over, unbuttoning his suit jacket as he did.

'What's all that about?'

'Andrea and Daniel are tied to the body we found this morning.' Beckett explained the situation as she wrote up her murder board updates, then went to call CSU for pick up and a priority-one tag on the laptop. 'I don't like it sir.'

'If you don't want the case because they're your friends-'

'Not that, it's...there's no window of time on the email threat, no 'you have x-many hours to notify me', no instructions on how they tell the suspect they're splitting up. Makes me think he or she already has the next body and is going to kill them anyways.'

'Then let's light a fire, Detective.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	4. The Crime Scene I

Back at the murder board, Beckett made notes and thanked Ryan for the vanilla latte he brought her from Brewster.

'So is it weird not having Castle around?'

'A little,' Beckett admitted. She sipped one more mouthful of coffee, then put it down on her desk as she paced. 'What do we know about the disposal site?'

'High amount of foot-traffic, but then, the killer wanted her found right away. He's on a mission and has a message.'

Her desk phone rang and Beckett nodded as she said yes; it was habit from talking with Alexis so much on Skype. 'Thanks. That was Fontina in the AV lab. He's got something on the laptop. You go see what he's found, I'm going to push through a warrant for phone and financials, talk to her husband once more.'

'You got it.'

* * *

><p>Riley Fontina was, in Detective Ryan's illustrious opinion, the very epitome of a computer geek. He had close-cropped black hair around a narrow, scholarly face and he invariable wore jeans, an untucked oxford with a sweater vest and a bowtie. He pushed the slipping bridge of his horn-rimmed glasses back up his ice-pick nose and cleared his throat.<p>

'Everything is on the level, sir,' he said in his nasal voice. 'Neither Andrea nor Fiona's accounts were hacked which means that whoever sent the email was using Fiona's original password and login.'

'Which means that either she trusted her killer enough to give him her passwords, or he made her code into the computer under duress.'

'My girlfriend and I have been together eight years, and she won't even let me borrow her laptop.'

_You have a girlfriend_ threatened to trip off of Ryan's tongue, but Riley kept going. 'I also traced back the source of the Internet connection. It was the Starbucks at Coulson and Seventh Street.'

'That's the meat-packing district. But that video wasn't shot in an overpriced coffee shop.'

'I only said the connection came from the Starbucks,' Riley said with a withering stare. 'Triangulating the distance between the wi-fi centre and the receiving computer, it was in this block.'

The tech pulled up a satellite map and highlighted a warehouse across the street from what was clearly Seattle's most famous export. 'That one right there.'

'You seem pretty certain.'

'I know my job well. You go there, you'll find the setting of your video.'

'Good work, Riley.' Ryan clapped his thin shoulder, then dialed Beckett. 'Hey, it's Ryan. I have a lead on where the crime scene is.'

'So do I.'

'How?'

'Talking to Fiona Birk's husband, he said she called him up around nine when her office was closing and going to meet one last client after hours at the Starbucks on Coulson and Seventh Street. Meet me in the garage in ten.'

* * *

><p>Since traffic decided to play nice and get out of the way for cop cars with flashing lights but no sirens, they made it to the warehouse in decent time. The building was non-descript, covered in graffiti which seemed to be SOP for the area but the tangle of chains that only made it look locked up was not. Drawing their weapons, they drew back the door and braced for what they might find.<p>

What they found was chilling.

Just as in the video, there was a dingy, pale blue light casting shadows into the corners. On the tables were Fiona Birk's cellphone, laptop and wallet with all of her credit cards inside, Beckett discovered when she pulled on gloves and picked it up for a quick inspection.

'Well, whoever's done this is making sure we know it's not about money or rape,' she commented to Ryan. 'Why Andrea and Daniel? What's so special about them?'

'We need to get them back and have them tell us about their life together,' Ryan told her and Beckett nodded her agreement; the Irish detective stepped away to call the trouble couple while Beckett continued to look around. What would make someone kill a caterer with such a benign, passing attachment to the couple in order to scare them into calling off the wedding? They needed to talk to Andrea and Daniel again, maybe find out if anyone was against them getting married or not as happy as they should be for a couple newly engaged.

She put in a quick call to CSU and took a breath before going back over. The day she didn't have to do that, Beckett knew that was the day to turn in her weapon and shield.

'Hey, they're good to come in,' Ryan said, coming back over. 'They'll be at the station for one.'

'Excellent. Why leave this stuff here?'

He looked down at the table with the cellphone and laptop - all items easily trashed or fenced if cash was needed or if the killer wanted to make it difficult for the cops. Yet here they were, all but gift-wrapped. 'More importantly how is this stuff still here? Chains aren't going to deter

'We'll wait on forensics before we go jumping to conclusions. Right now, let's go talk to the people she worked with.' Beckett looked at her cell as it peep-peeped an incoming text. 'Strike that, Lanie's got something on autopsy. We'll swing by her while we wait for Fiona Birk's financials and phone records to come through.'

'I'd rather go to the catering company. They'd be more likely to take pity on a hungry cop than a corpse.'

'I'll buy you a burger,' Beckett said wryly with a little smile.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	5. The First Clues

She did indeed buy Ryan a veggie burger and a turkey one for herself from Remy's on their way to the morgue, and kept them in the car while they paid a trip to Lanie's office. The smell of autopsy chemicals and the salty undercurrent of blood was pervasive even into the hallway. They walked in and it was definitely a good thing the pair of detectives waited on scarfing down their treats from Remy's as Lanie was sewing Fiona's chest closed. The petite doctor gave them a smile as she made sutures. 'I think you set a record in the time you got over here.'

'Well, her husband deserves answers, and Andrea and Daniel don't need to live with the guilt.'

'What guilt, they didn't put her on my table.'

'No, but you know Andrea, she'll blame himself. What did you find?' Beckett asked.

Lanie sent aside her suturing tools once her last stitch was finished. 'Stomach contents,' she said, gesturing to a metal bowl, 'amongst them was this.'

She held up a plastic forensics baggie, neatly labeled and closed with crime scene tape, for Beckett and Ryan's inspection, the latter of whom squinted at it.

'Is that...a ring?'

'Not just a ring, a copy of Andrea's engagement ring.'

Beckett took the baggie from Lanie, held it close. 'Is it a real copy or a fake copy?'

'Haven't sent it to the lab yet but the point is, the killer made her ingest this somehow. Whoever your killer is, they really want to know Andrea is the target and Daniel's just collateral.'

'Any chance of prints?'

'We'll see what we can do.'

'Thanks Lanie,' Ryan told her, even as his stomach churned sickly. 'Anything else you've got right now?'

'Tests are running as we speak. In the meantime I've got other bodies wanting my magical hands.'

'Don't let Dave hear you say that,' Beckett teased her friend.

* * *

><p>When they arrived back at the precinct, Andrea and Daniel were already there and waiting in the lounge for them. Ryan made tea for Andrea while Daniel and Beckett waited for coffee.<p>

'Are there any suspects yet?' Andrea asked, taking the cup Ryan offered her.

'We're working on every possible avenue,' Beckett replied, feeling awful when she saw the little sliver of hopeful light leave her friend's eyes. 'Right now, we need to talk to you about your engagement. When did it happen, who did you talk to before you proposed Daniel, who you've told since.'

'I don't understand, how are those details relevant?'

'It helps us figure out how the killer learned what he or she needed to know in order to do what he or she is doing,' Ryan explained.

Daniel looked at Andrea, clasped her hand tightly in his. 'I knew I was going to propose to Andrea back in September, and I talked to a couple of people about rings but I went with Maison Bijou, they're on Lexington and Sixty-First. I worked with Steve Nelson, he helped me pick out Andrea's ring and I ordered it on September twentieth. The only people I told were my father and my brother.'

'You kept it a secret that long?' Andrea asked him, and Daniel nodded.

'I didn't want to jinx it since I had to special order your ring. Meredeth was the first person who saw the ring outside my family.'

'And you proposed on the nineteenth,' Beckett added, remembering the night she'd had to take RJ into the ER with strep throat and she'd seen the beautiful ring on Andrea's hand for the first time. 'Just the two of you. How did you contact your families to let them know?'

'We called Daniel's father and brother, and we waited until Thanksgiving with my sisters and my mother to tell them in person, on the twenty-third. After that it was just our regular friends and co-workers.'

'Why did you wait to tell your family, Andrea?'

Andrea took a bracing breath, felt Daniel squeeze her hand in support. She had the memory of being in Honey-Milk's living room crying her eyes out over the horrific bullshit trick her sisters had pulled. 'My family hasn't been supportive of my relationship at all with Daniel. My sisters, Gerry and Cora have told me that I don't deserve Daniel because I'm too fat and ugly and lazy for him, so they are not part of our lives, especially after I discovered that they'd started a betting pool on when Daniel would call off the wedding and leave me.'

'What about your mother's reaction?' Beckett asked softly.

'She said that we're all adults now and we should sort out our problems ourselves. Mostly she's content to sit on a beach in the Caymans with her rich third husband and drink her meals.'

'We'd like to talk to Gerry and Cora, Andrea. It's routine,' Ryan added when he saw the raw, sick panic in the woman's eyes. 'They have a history of disapproval and we need to eliminate them as possible suspects.'

'You don't seriously think they had something to do with this, do you?'

'Like we said, we need to talk to them first.'

They went through a few more questions, and the moment Andrea and Daniel were gone Beckett turned to Ryan. 'We need to look into those bitches' lives.'

'Wow, I've never heard you talk like that about potential suspects.'

'Andrea and Daniel are part of our family now. No one gets to our family like this.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	6. The CoWorker

'She was a nice lady, you know? Fair to everyone or as fair as she could be.'

Mona Malloy's dark brown eyes were puffy and red-rimmed from crying as she talked to Beckett and Ryan. News had spread of Fiona's death through the small company like brushfire and Fiona's second-in-command was, despite her own protestations, holding up remarkably well while speaking to the police. She patted her mocha-coloured cheeks and tried to take a few deep breaths to compose herself.

'It's okay to be upset, Mona,' Beckett reassured her. 'You were close?'

'Uh-huh. Working ten, twelve, sometimes fourteen hour days getting ready for weddings and brisses and parties of all kinds, you either hate the person in your pocket or you become each other's besties, you know?'

'Oh yeah,' Ryan chipped in. 'We together more than we're not.'

'Tell me about the Christmas party you were working at on November twenty-seventh,' Beckett added, seeing that the woman would be able to handle a short interview.

'That was for Doctor Grace Phillips up on Seventy-Ninth and Park. She's an OBGYN in a hospital downtown, and it was the party for her department staff. We were doing a trayed hors d'oeuvre course, buffet dinner and made-to-order crepes for dessert.'

'Was there anyone there who seemed off, paying a little too much attention to this couple?' Ryan showed Mona a candid shot of Andrea and Daniel, watched the woman's eyes light in recognition.

'I remember this couple. They were gorgeous, especially that girl. I remember her man making sure she had enough to eat and I thought it was a nice change from some jerkoff- oh, pardon my French - some _jerk_ telling his girl to put her fork down when she wants seconds. He called her Annie...Anna...something with an 'A' at the start.'

'Andrea.'

'Andrea, yeah, that's it. She's in trouble?'

'We believe that whoever killed Fiona is doing it to try and break this couple up.'

Now Mona looked appalled as well as distraught. 'Fiona was killed because someone wanted them to split up?'

'The evidence is making that implication, yes. Was there anyone you heard who sounded angry or jealous of them?'

'One springs to mind. Kelly, no Kailey. Kailey something, she was running her mouth in the way girls do to try and cover up how much they're hurting.'

Beckett noted the name down. 'We'll need a guest list for cross-referencing.'

'Sure, I'll make sure you have within the hour.'

'What about last night, walk me through what you and Fiona were doing?' Ryan asked, knowing that despite her coherence, his questions would make her tears start up again.

'We were getting mini-cakes made for a tasting this morning. My family's in Cincinnati visiting the in-laws and Fiona's man and boy were out at a Giants game so we decided to work late rather than come in early this morning. We were here until about eight thirty, and we closed up together. I offered to split a cab with but she said she had an after-hours appointment in the meat-packing district so...' Mona trailed off as she began to weep again.

'Did she often do that? Take after-hours appointments?'

'Yeah, a lot of the time, it's how we get new business.' She let out a shaky breath, put a hand to her mouth. 'I should have offered to go with her, I should have known better than to let her go off alone.'

'Mona, given what we know about Fiona's death, you would have been killed too. And you had no way of knowing that this was something outside your usual appointments.'

'Let's go back to the party,' Beckett said softly. 'Was there anything that stood out, someone getting overly friendly with Daniel perhaps?'

'No. But that girl I mentioned, Kailey? When she came to get her crepe after Andrea and Daniel were by my station, she said something like it must be nice to be a fattie and get a man like Daniel. Had it not be totally inappropriate I would have poured my pitcher of cherry sauce over her head. Personally, I think she was just jealous that Andrea was comfortable and confident enough in herself that she enjoyed her meal instead of complaining over her celery.'

The way the woman said it had Beckett and Ryan both thinking of Meredeth. They knew all too well of the struggles their friend had had with her self-esteem and her body image, and how she was finally able to look at herself in the mirror without berating herself because she didn't have the slim lithe look of Beckett or the subtle, petite curves like Lanie, Lili and Honey-Milk. Meredeth, however, hadn't had the bitchy sisters telling her she was ugly and fat like Andrea did, and that was what made Andrea so much more fragile and struggle with the triangle relationship between herself, Daniel and food. Hearing that she'd enjoyed herself at a Christmas party like that was a small comfort during such a hellacious time.

'Did you say anything to her, Mona?' Beckett asked.

'I just said everyone has their opinion on what they find attractive, and Kailey agreed, then pointed out the bartender who she said was kinda cute, but I thought looked like a bulldog ran into a frying pan at sixty miles an hour, then took her half-sized crepe with caramel and whipped cream and ordered herself a double-gin and tonic.'

'Okay. If you can think of anything else from that night, call us.' Ryan gave Mona one of his cards. 'No matter how small, it could make the difference.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	7. The Person of Interest I

'This is weird.'

'Going back to question someone where my wife works?'

'I was going to say going back to question someone at the same place I had my son a year ago.'

Ryan glanced up at the entrance to Saint Vincent's hospital. 'Oh, sure, that too.'

They walked into reception, badged the nurse on the desk who pointed them in the direction of the pediatric floor and Beckett's feeling of being weirded out grew when she saw Honey-Milk at the nurses' station typing on a computer. When she glanced up, her smile was bright for her husband and friend first, then concerned for the cop duty that most likely brought them there.

'Detective, and Detective,' she greeted them. 'What can I help you with?'

Because it was official business and she wanted everything on the up-and-up, Beckett produced her badge for Honey-Milks superfluous inspection. 'We need to speak to Kailey Sampras, Nurse Ryan.'

'Can I ask what it's about?'

'It's regarding a homicide investigation.'

Honey-Milk sighed in heavy knowledge. 'It's about the connection to Andrea and Daniel, isn't it?'

'Yes.'

'Hang on, I'll get her.'

While they waited for their favourite nurse to find their person of interest, Ryan pulled out his cellphone, texted a naughty little message to his wife - _your ass looks very cute in those pink scrubs_ - since he couldn't give her the warm kiss he'd normally prefer to greet her with. A few minutes later, Honey-Milk returned with Kailey. She was a stick of a woman with a few inches on Honey-Milk. Her dark blonde hair was tied up in a knot at the nape of her neck and she wore silver stud earrings in the shape of Navajo suns.

'What's going on?' she asked warily.

'I'm Detective Kate Beckett, this is Detective Kevin Ryan, is there somewhere private we can speak?'

They went into an empty teaching room, the same one Beckett had done her Lamaze class in, and knew her weirdsville meter would need some recalibrating after today.

'We're conducting an investigation into the murder of Fiona Birk,' Beckett explained, 'and the threats against Andrea Hennessey and Daniel Brick related to said murder.'

'I didn't do it,' Kailey snapped, fear crystal clear in her voice.

'We just need to ask a few questions. How long have you worked with Andrea and Daniel?'

'Since they started hear about eight years ago.'

'Are you close with them?'

'Closer to Daniel, because he's worked in peds longer. Andy started out in triage before moving up here.'

'What about outside of work,' Ryan asked.

'Andy and I aren't BFFs but I wouldn't wish her dead or something.'

'What about Daniel?'

Kailey hesitated and in that moment, Beckett could see exactly what Mona had meant by masking the hurt. 'You made a play for him and he blew you off because you didn't know he was already seeing Andrea,' she inferred.

'Yeah, so?'

'So, seeing them get engaged must have made you upset.'

'A little, but I got over it by getting under the bartender at the Christmas party,' Kailey retorted. 'Nothing cures wedding bell blues like the wheelbarrow position after a few double gin and tonics.'

'Ain't it the truth,' Ryan said dryly, getting a little laugh from Kailey.

'Honestly, it was a little dent to my ego when I found out they were together, but I'm not a home-wrecker and I'm certainly not a murderer. And if you want my whereabouts for the murder, go ahead and ask.'

'Last night between nine and eleven pm,' Beckett replied without missing a beat.

'I was working. There was a fire in a boarding-school dorm on Sunday afternoon and I was treating eleven year olds for smoke inhalation. all night.'

'Okay, we'll check it out. But,' she added, using one of her husband's favourite lines, 'don't leave town.'

* * *

><p>The moment they were back in the Crown Vic, Beckett turned to Ryan. 'She's hiding something. More, she hates Andrea.'<p>

'No shit,' Ryan agreed. 'An ego like that, you can tell from the way she said Andrea's name. Andy isn't feminine, she's your pal that you hang out with, not the woman you fantasize about. And Andrea's definitely the kind of woman a man is going to fantasize about whether Kailey realizes it or not.'

'Kailey doesn't want to see her as a rival because she thinks she's better than her. And,' Beckett continued, 'she said 'little' twice. That means it's anything but little to her. The question is, would seeing Daniel chose Andrea over be enough to push her over the edge and commit murder?'

'All it takes is me asking Jenny if she was working Sunday night to find out if she has an alibi,' Ryan pointed out.

'We're going to keep an eye on her, in the mean time we're going to need to talk to Andrea's sisters.'

'You think one of them might know something?'

'Hard to say but I think in light of what's happened, people who put bets on the failure of their sister's relationship aren't too far away from paying for murder.'

Ryan went to put his cell on speaker phone when it chirp-chirped an incoming text. He glanced at the screen, saw it was from Riley Fontina. 'Our CSU compu-tech has something new for us and I don't think he means a new iPad.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	8. The Possible Break

The CSU lab was a very interesting hive of activity, Ryan mused. Too often they were written off as geeks with buck teeth and Coke-bottle glasses who spoke in such complicated technical terms they almost needed a translator.

The reality was far different - just like cops, each CSU agent or technician had their own specialty and social code. Ballistics guys were cowboys, hematologists and DNA specialists were rarely phased on the job, and the A/V and digital guys were video-game loving little-big boys who drooled over computers like they were cover girls for _Perfect Ten_ and _Bombshell_. Riley was no exception to this; he even had Meredeth Esposito's cover from _Bombshell_ as his personalized wallpaper on his work station terminal.

The tech's attention, however, as Beckett and Ryan strolled in, was on the cutie-pie toxicologist Andrews who was rubbing his shoulders in support. His head was lolled forward so his chin rested on his chest as he sighed in appreciation.

'Hope we're not interrupting,' Beckett said with a teasing tone. Her voice had Andrews jumping on the spot and blushing red as her lipstick.

'Apologies, Detective, didn't know you were waiting to speak with Riley. I'll go now.'

Andrews scurried out, leaving Riley looking incredibly frustrated. 'Man, she never does that at work,' he grumbled, but sat up straight. 'You got my message awfully fast.'

'We want this one solved quickly.'

'Understandable. The email sent to Andrea and Daniel with the video attachment was blind carbon-copied to another email address registered to Murdock Holdings Corporation in the sunny Cayman Islands.'

'It is a popular spot for money-laundering. Could be the killer was on a proof-before-payment schedule.'

'Well, I dug into Murdock Holdings Corporation and they are a legitimate company, they are the Caribbean real-estate branch of Murdock Holdings Limited, which is based right here in New York with offices in Manhattan, London, Brisbane, Tokyo and they're currently under development in Johannesburg and Mumbai.'

'Keep going Riley, dig up any connections Fiona Birk might have had with them in the last two months.'

'You got it.'

* * *

><p>The detectives headed back to the Precinct to update Montgomery and to begin sifting through financial records; as Fiona Birk's death was related to her profession it meant having to go through both personal and business files which was most definitely a cause for a headache.<p>

'Where is Esposito when you need him?' Ryan sighed, throwing down his highlighter and leaning back to drag his palms over his face. 'He loves doing the financial records.'

'He's at home with his babies.'

'You want a fresh coffee?'

'Tea for me. Even Castle's high-dollar crap tastes like motor oil after the fourth cup in a row.'

Ryan left to give his burning eyes a break and Beckett decided she needed one too, so she picked up a dry erase marker and began adding notes to her murder board.

_BCC email of death vid to Murdock Holdings Corp - legit or front?_

_Is killer for hire? Proof before pay?_

_Kailey S - more than jealous?_

She capped her marker, stood back to study the puzzle pieces: a cake-maker is murdered and the killer dumps her body in a park; meanwhile a video of the baker's death is sent to an unsuspecting couple and told that unless they call off their wedding, another person is going to die. The killer uses the victim's own logins without obvious coercion of the system and makes her swallowed a replica of the bride-to-be's engagement ring and carbon copies the death-video to an apparently legitimate company in the Cayman Islands.

There had to be a story to make it all make sense, Beckett thought. Was it money? Drugs? Or did some people in this world just out and out hate Andrea that much? Andrea was the target, that much was obvious. It was sent to her email, her name was on the threat. Daniel it seemed was just collateral damage in this whole ugly mess, at least to the killer.

'Are you hoping if you stare at the board long enough the lines and shapes will reform into the name and address of our killer?' Ryan asked, handing her the tea with steamed milk.

'I can't shake this feeling that we're overlooking the obvious.'

'Like what?'

'I don't know what, if I knew it'd wouldn't be overlooking the obvious.'

'Okay, take two.' Ryan clapped his hands together like they were on a film-set. 'We've combed over everything we can so far.'

'Then let's walk it through. She gets off work, tells her friend they're not sharing a cab because she's got a late appointment with the killer. Killer gets her to the warehouse, incapacitates her, brings her around. She is on video, being tortured and begging for her life, then he or she kills Fiona. There's a gap there of at least five hours where the killer so we need to fill that in. Then he or she takes her over to Herman Park for the body dump.'

'How would he or she get her to Herman Park from the meat-packing district that late at night?'

Beckett blinked at Ryan, then patted his shoulder. 'This is why you are a good cop, Kevin Ryan. Call the public transit and taxi authority, get them to pull all pick-ups on that block from between ten and seven am. I'll call City-Cam and get the traffic footage from the Coulson and Seventh intersection.'

Beckett felt the rush in her veins as Ryan picked up the phone. They were getting closer.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	9. The Harpies

Ryan had just returned from CSU to the bullpen with what he'd learned when he saw two rail thin women both about the same height, both dressed in pale sweater sets and black pants; the look of them made Ryan think of chopsticks and he wondered if he'd be able to text his wife that they should have Chinese or Thai that night for dinner.

He approached Beckett who had shown the two women into one of the soft-interview rooms and she kept her face as calm as possible.

'Gerry Fitzpatrick and Cora Gaffigan, Andrea's sisters.'

'Oh boy.'

'That's about right on a personal level, but we are professionals, we will do our jobs with objectivity and decorum, Detective,' Beckett said sternly. She had to use her school-teacher voice because she knew any other tone would be one of protective retaliation for her new friend and the woman who'd helped her bring her son into the world.

Beckett let Ryan go into the room first so she could have a moment to study the women - both looked like a harsh sneeze might snap their ribs, and the one in the pale peach sweater set had a little air of detachment. She could understand almost instantly how Andrea felt out of place with them.

'Ladies thank you for coming in, I'm Detective Kate Beckett.'

'Gerry Fitzpatrick,' the one in the peach returned evenly.

'Cora Gaffigan,' the other one in the candy pink sweater set added, then folded her hands primly on her lap. 'I must say I was a little surprised to hear that Andy was involved with a murder case.'

'Is she in need of a lawyer?' Gerry asked.

'Not at this time.'

'Then why are we here?'

Ryan saw the light flash in Beckett's eyes and spoke up. 'Andrea and Daniel are being threatened by someone who murdered a possible caterer for their wedding. They received communication that they were to end their relationship or someone else would die.'

'Oh my goodness, that's horrible.' Cora actually clutched at the string of pearls around her neck. 'I hope she's done the right thing and listened to them.'

'Pardon me?' Ryan blinked at her.

'Obviously the right thing to do is to end the relationship so no one else has to die. Why should other families suffer because of her stupidity?'

'Her stupidity.'

'Andy's not exactly what you'd call real-world smart,' Gerry explained in a tone better used on slow kindergartners. 'She wouldn't think of how her clinging to the ridiculous notion she is actually going to marry Daniel is hurting others. Doing the right thing isn't exactly her style.'

'I'm sensing a lot of...hostility,' Beckett said at length. 'Am I to understand you don't think your sister deserves to be happy?'

'Not looking the way she does, no.'

'Andy's always had a severe weight problem. Well, you've met her, you know that.' Cora smiled with such condescension Beckett wanted to punch her. 'And we all know that Daniel is only with her out of pity. Anyways, the bottom line is that obviously Andy hasn't learned anything from us, and it's more than a little scary to think others are now paying the price for it.'

Ryan could only stare at them. They were making it sound like Andrea was some kind of morbidly obese woman, not a healthy one-ninety-five on a five-nine frame with a body, career and boyfriend a lot of women would love to have. Tapping a pen on his notepad, he tried to keep his cool. 'Do you know a Fiona Birk?'

'No,' they chorused, Cora adding, 'Is that the woman who died because of Andy?'

'She died because someone murdered her. That murderer is using your sister and her fiance as an excuse to kill,' Beckett corrected them stiffly. 'Andrea and Daniel ending their relationship would do nothing but hurt each other because they love each other, and this killer would find a new reason to do what he or she is doing. Ryan and I are doing everything to make sure that whoever is trying to split up such a happy couple pays for what their doing.'

'Can you tell us your whereabouts last night between eight and eleven last night?' Ryan asked, going right for the hearts he wondered if they had.

'I was home with my husband watching football. Giants versus Saints,' Gerry replied in a snotty 'who do you think you are questioning me' tone.

'I was with my husband as well, but we were out with friends for a late dinner after the movies. We saw _Violet_ at six-forty-five and then went to Portofino's. I had the chicken penne al fredo.' Cora uncrossed her legs, stood up with a tug on the hem of her sweater. 'Now, if you're done, we're going to pay our sister a visit to find out why she is acting so selfishly.'

Since it was just a couple of information questions, Beckett had to let them go. When she saw them step onto the elevator and the doors closed, Ryan exploded beside her.

'I want to go and give Andrea a hug. Who the fuck do they think they are, talking about their sister like that? I once called Dana Thunder-Thighs as a joke and my mother slapped me on the knuckles with a kitchen spoon. And they think this is Andrea's fault, they actually want their sister's relationship to end.'

'Don't be shy, speak up, Detective,' Beckett chuckled. 'Show me what you found on the traffic cam footage from CSU.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	10. The End of Day 1

By quarter to six, Beckett was feeling the fatigue of a day chock full of nothing but dead-ends. The traffic cam footage gave them the step forward they wanted and step backwards they could have done without - the van they found was registered to Murdock Holdings Corp, the company that owned the warehouse, but the downside was that it was a communal delivery van for all kinds of things so forensics would be an absolute bitch to get through. Still, they were an intrepid bunch and promised they would do what they could.

In the mean time, Beckett and Ryan both wanted to know more about this Murdock Holdings Corporation so they glued themselves to their computers to find out what they could only to discover that there was very little about the company which had Beckett thinking it was a front for all kinds of sins.

'So we've got a dead baker, a shady company in the Caymans and a couple being threatened and somehow we need to find out how all these things are linked. Never thought I'd say this but I wish Rick was here with his outside the box thinking,' Beckett said with a little pout.

Instead of teasing her, Ryan nodded in agreement. 'He's got a unique way of looking at things, that's for damn sure. And he'd have a clever name for those two ladies.

'Actually, I think he'd quote that Bette Davis movie, the line about high society dogs.'

'There's a name for you ladies but it isn't used in high society outside of a kennel,' Montgomery offered; the sound of his voice suddenly in their midst had his detectives jumping, looking around like kids in a classroom misbehaving had suddenly been caught by the principal. 'Any luck with the traffic footage?'

'Found a van registered to the same company who owns the van. We tapped into its GPS and sent some unis with CSU to bring it in for testing,' Beckett replied. 'I still think there has to be a link to Andrea and Daniel, people who knew about their engagement and knew they were talking to Fiona about their upcoming wedding.'

'How did it go with the sisters?'

Ryan squirmed a little. 'Sir, speaking as a career cop, to speak freely about them would be reason for sanction on my badge and I don't want that.'

'Duly noted, Detective.' Montgomery looked at the murder board. 'How are Andrea and Daniel doing?'

'They're holding, but Daniel texted me, said Andrea's sisters were by after we talked to them and she's spent the last hour and a half throwing up.'

'Poor girl. She's not handling this well, is she?'

'Sir,' Beckett interjected, 'Andrea's sisters had a bet going on when Daniel would dump her after they got engaged. How would your wife have taken something like that?'

'Also noted.'

Beckett circled her desk, studied the board. 'Andrea mentioned something about her mother being in the Caymans with her latest squeeze. What if Gerry and-or Cora got the idea to having their mother tap into her boyfriend's company to hire a killer?'

'It's worth a look. What about the threat of a new murder?'

'Andrea and Daniel have received no new communication regarding that possibility so at this point all we can do is treat it as nothing more than a threat and get to the bottom of Fiona Birk's murder.'

'Then get to the bottom of it.' But Montgomery stayed, looking at the board. 'Have you considered that the link to the Cayman company is incidental?'

'Yes and it does feel that way, but I don't want to overlook anything,' Beckett replied.

'Fair enough. Keep me posted.'

Montgomery headed for the stairs up to the Vice bullpen; once he was gone, Beckett turned back to Ryan. 'Let's look at the video sent to Andrea and Daniel again, see if there's anything we can get out of that.'

Ryan called up the video on his desk-top, and then went through it at a painstaking pace. They watched until the killer came into view once more and Beckett had Ryan paused the video.

'What's that?' she asked pointing to the space behind Fiona's head. 'Can you enhance that?'

'I'll see what I can do.'

He clicked a few keys, tried to get the resolution refined. When he'd done what he could do, Ryan sat forward, squinted. 'It looks like a face.'

'Could be our killer. Get it to Riley, have him clean it up for us. We'll pick it up in the morning.'

'I hear ya. We need a break from this for a few hours at least.' Ryan stretched, sent the request to Riley in CSU, then shut down his computer. 'I'm going home to the wife and kids.'

'And so am I. How's Dell doing with school?' she asked him as they walked to the elevator.

'Good. He had to do his first show-and-tell last week, so he took a picture of him with Mallory when she was first born.'

'That's so sweet.'

'How is it having Alexis home?' Ryan asked.

'Fantastic. RJ is hilarious, he gets very pouty when she stays at Shane's and very protective when Shane stays over. After seeing him kiss Alexis, he's watching him like a hawk.'

'It's his job as a brother.'

'I don't have any of those. At least, not ones I grew up with,' Beckett told him with a little smile. 'You and Espo put Rick through the paces.'

'You're our sister. It's our job.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	11. The Night At Home I

'Hello? Anyone home?'

'Mumum!'

Beckett felt a blooming warmth in her chest as she heard her son's voice call out to her and he walked towards her from the living room with Alexis behind him. She crouched down, held out her arms to him. 'Hello my little prince, did you miss me?'

'Miss. Dash baddies?'

'Uncle Kevin and I are closing in one one.'

'Yea Mumum!' RJ patted her shoulder, then held up his hand. 'Feed birdies.'

Beckett giggled and tapped her fingertips against her son's, then stood up to take off her boots. The loft smelled gloriously of roasted meat and fresh green vegetables, and she knew she had to tease her husband about having dinner on the table for when his wife was home from the day's work. It died on her tongue when she saw Shane was in the kitchen with Castle, and a new tease was formed.

'This is a flip. The woman's off bringing in the bacon while the men are in the kitchen with the aprons.'

Castle looked up from his sauce pan, and Beckett got her second rush of coming home when she saw his smile. No question, RJ had inherited his grin from his daddy. 'There's my big bad flat-foot. You're home surprisingly early.'

'Caught a case today, a bad one. Maybe you can help me look over it after RJ's in bed?'

'Of course. Now, put it away for a moment and check this out.'

Castle brought his sauce-pan under her nose and Beckett could smell something delicious. 'My word, what is that?'

'My father's recipe for split-pea and ham soup,' Shane replied. 'Figured you'd like something nice and roasty warm after being on the mean streets all day.'

'Most of my day was divided between the office and the streets, but thank you all the same.'

'Consider yourself lucky, Mom.' Alexis brought RJ over on her hip to put him in his high-chair at the table between his parents. 'Our one year anniversary is on the eighth and he still won't tell me how to make it.'

'I could send back your gift and show you how to make soup instead.'

'And it's be the only hot thing you get that night.'

'Alright, enough of that.' Castle brought a basket of freshly-baked garlic bread to the table, poured apple juice for RJ and white wine for the rest of the table. 'Shane?'

'No, I'm on call until eight. I'll share the apple juice with RJ. Okay, soup's on.' Shane brought the tureen to the table, followed by the platter of roasted ham, and kissed Alexis' cheek which elicited a warning from RJ.

'Day-fo, Shin. My Less.'

'Noted. Now let's, eat.'

* * *

><p>When Shane and Alexis had left for a late movie and RJ was tucked into bed, Beckett and Castle retreated into his office with her case files and she told him what was going on with the case.<p>

'Damn that's rough. How are Daniel and Andrea?'

'Shaken up but holding so far. Her sisters visited her and Daniel after I asked them some questions downtown and you can imagine how that went.'

'I've heard stories here and there from Jenny and you.'

'Apparently, after they left, Andrea spent the next ninety minutes in the bathroom heaving her guts out.'

Castle shook his head. 'See that was one of the perks of being an only child. No evil siblings.'

'As far as the case goes, Ryan and I have some leads, namely looking into the Murdock Holdings Corporation, digging into Kailey Sampras' background and taking a hard look at Andrea's sisters.'

'Okay, then let's walk the crime scene. Fact.' He stuck out his thumb. 'Fiona Birk had a steady job but there was no way to know for certain which days she had off-hours appointments unless you had access to her personal diary, or talked to her one-on-one about those appointments.'

'Which means someone had to tip off the killer. Mona said the first time she heard of that appointment was the night Fiona was murdered so someone had to either see or hear her and Andrea talking about making a formal appointment.

'Another fact. Lanie put the cause of death between midnight and two last night. So if her appointment was after she finished work-'

'What did he do with her for three hours? There was no sign of rape or fresh sexual activity, and the bruises we saw on her in the video Lanie said would have appeared within the hour given the force behind them.'

'Maybe it was someone she'd met before,' Castle suggested. 'Someone who had only shown a passing interest. Aren't there like big bridal shows at convention centres? All the vendors go, dresses, floral, jewelery, the works. Maybe it was someone whom she'd spoken with then and let her guard down because she was interested in hooking the client.'

Beckett made a note of it, to go by and talk to Andrea about it. 'My gut is still telling me that the owners of the building are involved somehow.'

'Why?'

'Because if they weren't, they would be neck-deep up our collective asses to catch the person. Not a single person's come forward.'

'Tell me about the company.'

'Based in the Caymans, has offices in New York, England, Japan, and others under construction.'

'Are they?'

Beckett looked at him, narrowed her eyes before giving him a kiss. 'It's good to be back.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	12. The Night at Home II

On the other side of town, Ryan was unlocking his apartment door to the smell of Chinese take-out from Bamboo Garden - he'd cracked and texted Honey-Milk to pick up take-out on her way home from work with the kids - and the sound of Dell and Mallory playing in the living room.

'No fish.'

'Go fish, Marsh-Mally. Gooooooo.'

'Nooooooo.'

'How are my card sharks?' Ryan asked, and both his children looked up from their game; it was instantly forgotten as they rushed over to give him a hug.

'Daddy!' Dell clamped his arms around his father's thighs. 'You an' De-tec-tive Beckett get the bad guys today?'

'Baddies,' Mallory added.

'We have a few people we suspect for our case tonight. Where's Mama?'

'Pee-pee,' Mallory offered helpfully in the blunt way of toddlers, making Dell roll his eyes.

'She is in the bathroom, Mallory. That's the nice way to say it.'

Sure enough, Ryan heard the toilet flush and Honey-Milk appeared, hair still tied up the way she'd worn it at work that day. 'Hello, nurse,' he said with a wink as he went over to give her a kiss.

'Hello, Detective.' She returned his kiss, gave him a squeeze around the waist. 'I figured you'd want Chinese on a day like today.'

'Mama, shoos?'

'Milk with dinner, Mallory,' Dell answered his sister's question. 'You need milk to get big and suh-trong like me.'

Mallory flex her arm to mimic her brother's Hulk Hogan stance. 'Ton.'

'Exactly.'

'Dell, go help your sister wash her hands. Thank you for setting the table.' When the children were out of ear-shot, Honey-Milk turned to her husband. 'Kev, whatever you need me to do for Andrea at work, or if you need to talk to Kailey again, consider it done. I am their boss, you know.'

'I know. It's already a goddamn mess given that they're our friends and being sucked into this. You can hate me for it, or be crabby at me, make me sleep on the couch, but if you're going to do those kinds of things on this case it has to be at the precinct so there's no suspicion by IA or anyone like that.'

'I know, I understand. The closer you are to a case, the more formal it has to be. I understood that seven years ago when I met you, sweetie,' she reminded him with a kiss on his cheek. 'I don't want my business in question either.'

It was truly a blessed miracle to have a wife, a life-partner, who understood him so well and loved him with such patience. Ryan drew her close, laid his lips on hers. 'I love you Jennifer.'

'Love you too, Kevin.'

He gave her a second little kiss and would have let his hands roam down her body had it not been for the little _thud-thud-thud_ of the kids' footsteps, signaling their return.

'Ew, why you guys always mooshin' like that?' Dell asked, wrinkling up his nose as he went into the kitchen. 'Mama, you want any help?'

'If you can put the cups and plates on the table, that would be great.'

'Okay.'

Ever dutiful, Dell took the glasses over to the table one at a time while Ryan poked into the containers that Honey-Milk unpacked. 'Kung-Pao tofu?'

'With extra chest-nuts. I know what my man likes.'

'I know you do. Maybe you could show me that later?' He kissed her throat, wrapped his arms around her waist. 'I could cash in a pity-love coupon.'

'It's on the house.'

'That's e-nough mooshin', Daddy.'

Ryan chuckled as he let go of his wife, turned to his son who was giving him the eye. 'Remember that in ten years time when you're kissing Tessi like that.'

* * *

><p>Once the kids were in bed with teeth brushed and stories read, Ryan spread out his work notes on the kitchen table, paying special attention to the vehicle. CSU was still running their findings on their sweep of the van, but Ryan's gut told him that would turn to a dead end. Their best bet was to focus on the warehouse.<p>

He opened the fridge to get his left-over Kung-Pao - yet another reason he loved his wife to bits, she knew he'd want some for snacking while he worked, so she doubled the order in their family-combo - and plucked out the crispy fried treats with chopsticks, chewed thoughtfully.

'Why that warehouse?' he mumbled around his food. 'Maybe the killer is told to take her there, or to meet her there. So why don't we see them go in?'

Finding a pen, Ryan made a note - _where is the entrance on the video? what about killer leaving?_

He thought too of the frame from the video where he and Beckett had seen what looked like a human face. A pro wouldn't be so sloppy, unless...that was the point, the killer was meant to be caught, so that the real person who wanted to make Andrea and Daniel pay for their alleged sins would be removed and trying to tie them in would be next to impossible.

'Kev?'

Ryan glanced up, saw his wife standing just at the entrance to the kitchen. 'Hey honey.'

'It's almost eleven, come to bed.'

'Yeah, I need the break, the rest. That coupon still good?'

'Of course.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	13. The Crime Scene II

'Beckett.'

'It's Ryan. We caught another one.'

Beckett lifted her head from her pillow. It was just after four am and she felt her heart sink. The killer was keeping with his schedule. 'Where are you?'

'Still at home, just got called. We're down in the same area, Coulson and Fourth. I'll meet you at your place in fifteen.'

'Got it.'

Beckett hung up her cell, then kissed her husband's shoulder. 'Time to roll-out, sweetie.'

'You gotta go?' Castle asked sleepily; at her nod, he threw back the covers, found his boxers. 'I'll get the coffee.'

Beckett gave herself five seconds of privacy to admire him as he walked out of the room before she found a pair of dark jeans and a warm pearl-grey cashmere sweater to wear under her winter coat. She didn't have time for a shower this morning, nor did she want to risk having wet hair when the temperature had suddenly plummeted to the twenties the night before. She tied her hair back off of her face, slapped on a little mascara and mute-tone lipstick, then holstered her sidearm and badge.

Before heading downstairs for coat, boots and coffee Beckett stopped in RJ's room, stroked his dark fuzzy little head. 'Mommy loves you, my little prince. I have to go get the bad guys now.'

'Mumum,' he sighed in his sleep, rolled to his side with his beloved bunny Oatmeal in a chokehold. 'Mumum.'

'I'll see you soon, my love.'

With a kiss on her son's forehead, she headed for the kitchen and wasn't surprised to find there was a breakfast fajita waiting for her along with her coffee courtesy of her husband.

'You're eating properly, Kate,' Castle told her, handing over the hot sauce; the woman loved Tabasco on her eggs, a taste which he himself found revolting. 'My cop can't function right without a proper breakfast.'

'Thanks, Rick.' She sprinkled in the hot-sauce, took a bite. Creamy eggs, sharp cheddar, the delicious texture of red and green peppers. Now she understood a little better Esposito's crankiness when he didn't remember to take whatever goodies Meredeth had made for him. 'This is so good. More, I know it'll stay down when we're on-scene this morning.'

She'd just crammed in the last bite and poured her second cup of coffee into a travel thermos when the doorman buzzed up to let her know Ryan was there. With a kiss for her husband and a promise of a call in case she needed a breather, Beckett headed out to find Ryan waiting without a car.

'You take the subway over?'

'No, parked my car here so we can take yours.'

'Not necessary but okay.'

Ryan shrugged. 'Habit from riding with Espo. He thinks just because it took me three tries to get my driver's license it means he has the con when we go on-scene.'

Beckett just shook her head. 'Well, Star Trek aside, fill me in on the way down.'

* * *

><p>It was another warehouse when they arrived at Coulson and Fourth, and the first thing Beckett did before even meeting with the first-responder officer was to call Riley Fontina and have him run the address for her, and to check out Andrea's email to see if there was any new message. Putting her phone away, she and Ryan found an Officer Theo McMurphy, a street vet who could have moved up plenty but like his hero Jim Malone of the legendary Eliot Ness squad, he preferred to be on the streets where he gained a rep as tough but fair. As a result there were no Lookie-Lous outside the entrance to the warehouse despite the two squad cars and the yellow-tape across the door.<p>

'Theo, how's it going,' Beckett greeted the silver-and-pepper haired cop.

'Better for me than this poor bastard.' He led them into the warehouse and the first thing that both Homicide detectives noticed was the smell - not of death but of greens and plant food.

'What is this place?'

'Florist warehouse and greenhouse,' Theo informed them as they walked past row after row of refrigeration units. 'It's where they keep all the flowers you don't normally find in season, like if you want tulips on Valentine's Day.'

'Any potential witnesses?'

'Security guard is only on until nine, an hour after they close up shop and then the morning guys come in for three-thirty, since a lot of the long-range drivers going to Jersey or Connecticut come early with their trucks. Your mystery guest is over there with the lady-doctor.'

'Thanks, Theo.' Beckett reached into her pocket for the latex gloves she'd stuffed in just before leaving her car, and approached the body that Lanie was studying and making notes on. It was in what appeared to be a small rotunda area near the office-counter, propped up on a chair with the same white silk around his throat, and the same bruises on his body. 'Lanie, two in a row?'

'Francis Reinhold, thirty-seven, works for Roses are Red according to his ID. I can also tell you he died between eleven and one last night, and this is where he died.' Lanie pointed to the countertop. 'And our killer is sending more messages.'

'Fuck,' Beckett swore under her breath. It would mean going to see Andrea and Daniel at home this time. They had to know right away before the media hounds sniffed out the connection. 'Ryan-'

Ryan tossed her the keys. 'I'll hitch a ride with Theo. You take the car, go see Andrea and Daniel.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	14. The Next Steps

As Beckett walked down the hallway to Andrea and Daniel's apartment, she realized with a nasty bump this was the first time she'd be going to their home. She only prayed that it wouldn't be the last time.

Trying to keep her composure, Beckett knocked on the door firmly. A few minutes later, it was opened by a rather miserable looking Andrea wrapped in a thick cherry-pink bathrobe, Daniel in black-sleep pants and a ratty t-shirt behind her.

'Detective, it's so early, what's wrong?'

'May I come in?'

'Oh. Oh, no,' Andrea shook her head as she stepped back to let Beckett in. 'Another one?'

'I'm afraid so.'

'I'll put on coffee.' Daniel kissed Andrea's temple, went into the kitchen while Beckett followed the exhausted woman into the living room. The Greenwich Village apartment was cozy yet inviting. Frame photos of Daniel and Andrea on their scuba-diving trips dominated one soft yellow wall in the living room. The couches were navy blue with aqua throw pillows, one of which Andrea wrapped her arms around as Beckett sat in the armchair.

'Why can't this whack-job just leave us alone? All we want is to get married and have a life together. Is that such a sin?' She sighed, put her fingertips to her temples, her thumb by her ear. 'Who was it?'

'Francis Reinhold, he works for Roses are Red.'

'Yeah, I had an appointment with him last week about centre-pieces. Daniel and I went to a wedding for a friend of his and I got the name from the bridesmaid. I thought since Daniel and I are getting married next October he might be able to do something similar for our wedding reception. Was...was there another video?'

'Yes.'

'At least I didn't have to see it this time. Oh God that sounds selfish.'

'It sounds human.' Daniel brought over a tray of three coffee cups, and Beckett watched as Andrea turned green right in front of her.

'Excuse me, I'm going to be sick.'

She bolted for the bathroom and they heard the water run to cover up the sound of her retching. Daniel passed Beckett a cup, sighed.

'She hasn't stopped throwing up all night. I wish there was something I could do.'

'You're doing it now, Daniel. Being strong for her because she thinks she can't, but the truth is she gets up and faces things like very few people I know.'

The door opened, but Andrea didn't reappear until she was out of her robe and in a pair of sleep-pants like Daniel's and a pale-blue zip hoodie. Her face was a little damp and flush, and she took her spot again beside Daniel, who kissed her cheek.

'I'm making you some tea.'

'Daniel-'

'Let him,' Beckett advised Andrea. 'It gives him something concrete to do while you're hurting.'

'Okay. Do you need to ask us some questions?'

'Yes. I need to know everything about your contact with Francis Reinhold.'

* * *

><p>When Beckett got back to the precinct, Ryan was at the murder-board, adding notes he'd learned from Lanie and Riley. He glanced over at her footsteps, gave her a little nod.<p>

'How'd Andrea and Daniel handle the news?'

'As well as they could. Andrea's not the cream-puff she looks like.'

'Neither is Meredeth,' Ryan pointed out. 'A woman who's married to Javier Esposito has to have a titanium spine.'

'Some days, I wonder if Andrea and Meredeth aren't' long-lost sisters. What'd you find out?'

'The video sent to Andrea's email this time was logged into the warehouse system, which isn't exactly the same as Fiona Birk but it goes to pattern. The killer has the victim use their login so that when Andrea sees it in her email she won't suspect anything.'

'What about the warehouse itself?'

'Being a warehouse, CSU is going to have a big ol' headache, but they'll do what they can.'

'No, not for prints, the warehouse itself. The building.'

'Oh right. Got it right here.' Ryan snapped his fingers, picked up a file with a printout. 'Once again, our friends in the Caymans are making an appearance. I did some digging, Murdock Holdings Corporation owns warehouses on Coulson Street from Seventh Street down to Fourth.'

'Why would a real-estate development firm need so much space in the meat-packing district?' Beckett wrote the question down on the board. 'My gut is still saying this company is involved somehow.'

'My question is how did they get in? I combed that footage on Fiona Birk and so did Riley, we didn't see them go in once.'

'There has to be something. Okay.' Beckett blew out a breath. 'I'm going to tag Newman to give you a hand with the grunt work on phone and bank records. I need to go and see Lanie at the morgue.'

'Alright.'

As luck would have it, Ryan saw the fresh-as-a-daisy Newman walking out from the break-room with a fresh coffee. 'Yo, Newman, you're with me.'

'Okay.' An affable chap, Newman redirected his path so he was sitting at Esposito's desk, took the stack of papers from the more senior detective. 'What am I looking for?'

'Any mention of the names Andrea Hennessey and Daniel Brick. We want to look at those numbers that crossover from this list.'

'You got it.'

With the paper-trail underway, Beckett grabbed her coat off her chair, headed for the elevator.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	15. The Step Forward

When Beckett arrived at the morgue, she wasn't sure what to think that Lanie was on the phone with her children while she ate breakfast.

'I know it's early, my little flower. Yes we can play with your gators when I get home. Okay, Auntie Katie's here, sweetheart, I have to go help her catch the bad guys. I love you too, I'll see you soon.'

Lanie hung up the phone, munched a tortilla chip. 'Meredeth made me lunch, you want a bite?'

'It's barely eight in the morning, Lanie.'

'And I was on midnights so my body says it's dinner time.'

'My body says I wanna know what you found on Francis Reinhold's autopsy.'

'Same thing as Fiona Birk. Duplicate of Andrea's wedding ring. The lab results came back, it's the real deal from a jewelery company called Maison Bijou.'

'That's where Daniel ordered Andrea's ring from.'

'Why make them swallow a ring?' Lanie pondered. 'Like, no one should have to choke down the travesty of Daniel and Andrea's marriage?'

'I don't know but you can be sure I'll ask when I get this asshole in the box.'

'You're pretty stirred up over this. I mean, moreso than a usual case, but it's an unusual case, right?'

'Andrea reminds me of Meredeth, there's something about her that I want to protect and support.'

'I can see that. Both haven't exactly had easy home lives and they are people who've found family instead of being born into it.'

'When this case is wrapped, I think we should take her to Marty and Teeny's. We've already got the night planned for Meredeth's first night out away from the twins, we're inviting her along too.' Beckett rubbed a hand over the back of her neck. 'Andrea's really taking it hard. Daniel said she hasn't stopped throwing up from the stress since yesterday and he's got no clue what to do for her other than holding her hand and telling her he loves her, that they're not splitting up just because of this.'

'That's a keeper. What about going to work?'

'Honey-Milk's given them both some emergency time off so they can be available to us. In the mean time, they're doing what they can to stay sane.'

'I'm going to visit Mere and the kids tomorrow, Carey and Violet are coming with. Maybe I could invite her.'

'That'd be a nice gesture. Let her know we're all here for her. I'll talk to Rick, I know he's got a poker night coming up when we're going to Marty and Teeny's, he can invite Daniel over. In the mean time, I have a hunch on this ring. Thanks, Lanie.'

* * *

><p>'If I'd known we were going jewelery shopping, I'd have told Jenny just to make her jealous.' Ryan popped out his side of the Crown Vic, slipping on his sunglasses as he did. 'There's a girl who loves her glitter.'<p>

'I know, her jewelery box would make a Swahili prince weep in delight.'

'Her pride and joy is still our wedding rings.' Ryan studied his hands, then look at Beckett's. 'Yours are pretty too.'

'Thanks.'

They stepped into the building, badging the security guard by the door who nodded solemnly. A woman who was a brittle stick in severe black from head to foot approached them, ready to show them to the tourist boutique on the fourth floor - Beckett had developed a sixth sense on these things in her years on the force - so she kept her badge in her palm and showed it off.

'Good morning ma'am, I'm Detective Kate Beckett, this is Detective Kevin Ryan, we're investigating a pair of homicides and we have a few questions for you.'

'Oh, perhaps I should not talk without a lawyer?' she asked in a musical Carib accent.

A man in a suit as severely black as the stick-woman's moved over to them so smoothly, he could have been on wheels. 'I am Henry Kessler, might I be of assistance?'

'Yes, I'm Detective Beckett, this is Detective Ryan,' Beckett repeated, showing off her badge once more. 'We are investigating a pair of homicides and we'd like to ask some questions.'

'Of course.'

Ryan dipped into his pocket, produced the ring in the evidence bag. 'What can you tell us about this piece?'

'Hmm, let's have a look.' Henry took the ring over to a magnifying glass, studied it. 'Yes, this is one of ours, produced exclusively for us. The style is quite popular with medical professionals and others who wear protective gloves.'

'How many would you sell in, say, a month?'

'Perhaps five or ten. You are in need of a list of the purchasers?' At Ryan's nod, Henry frowned. 'I need to think of the privacy of my customer, Detective.'

'Sir, this ring was found in the stomach of both our victims. They were targeted by a killer who is killing people in order to get a couple to break up and call off their wedding, and the groom to be bought his bride that very same ring.' Beckett pointed to the bag. 'I'm sure customer privacy is high on their list too.'

Henry sniffed, then sighed. 'How far back do you need?'

'Let's make it September twentieth.'

'I thought you're only interested in recent purchases.'

'September twentieth is the date the groom being threatened took purchase of his bride's ring,' Beckett returned evenly.

'September twentieth it is.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	16. The Person of Interest II

When they were back at the precinct, there was a small sheaf of printouts on Beckett's desk with a neatly-written Post-It note on top.

_All info I could find on Murdock. Got called out with K-Pow. Det. N._

'Go Newman,' she murmured, thumbing through the stack. The boy could sniff a paper trail like a tracking hound, a skill that was both derided and praised by cops. Sitting down at her desk with a fresh coffee, she read through it while Ryan worked on the cross referencing list.

'Hey, Beckett, I think I got something here.'

Her head snapped up. 'Yeah?'

'Yeah, on November twenty-second, three rings were purchased on three different credit cards - two through the online store, one in person - but they're all registered back to Murdock Holdings Corporation.'

'I knew she was tied in here somehow. Check this out.' Beckett handed him an article she'd highlighted. 'This is Marcos Huntington, the guy listed as the founder and CEO of Murdock Holdings Corporation.'

'We're doing leg work in a society column?'

'Just read.'

Ryan cleared his throat, read the marked sections out loud. 'Marcos Huntington was recently spotted with ex-wife number two, Laurie Sampras, in Aruba at the exclusive LaFontaine Resort. Sampras, a film make-up artist and mother of Marcos' third child Kailey, was in Aruba with friends after wrapping production on the highly anticipated _Havana Hellcats_ adaptation, according to her Twitter feed. Kailey Sampras.'

'Call Jenny, let her know we're coming.'

'You got it.'

* * *

><p>Honey-Milk was waiting for them when they got off the elevator at Saint Vincent's, a placid look on her face and worry in her eyes.<p>

'Detectives, you're back for more questions?'

'Yes, and it has to be official, downtown. We need you to page Kailey Sampras for us, Nurse Ryan,' Beckett told her in a too-calm tone.

Honey-Milk nodded, went to the nurse's station to page the nurse. When Kailey showed up, her face was a study of the effort to keep calm.

'Detectives, is there news on Andy and Daniel?'

'We need you to come downtown to answer some questions for us, Kailey,' Ryan said. 'Would you like to contact an attorney?'

'Why? I didn't do anything.'

'Very well.'

Kailey put her wrists together in front of her body. 'Aren't you going to put me in cuffs? Isn't that what cops do when they arrest people?'

'You're not under arrest, we just need you to answer some questions, Kailey,' Beckett explained. 'But you might want a jacket, it's nasty weather out there.'

'I'll go with her, make sure she doesn't try anything,' Honey-Milk offered.

Beckett nodded, then watched Ryan watching his wife walk down the hallway. She didn't imagine it was easy for her to be in a position like that, nor for Ryan either. 'How are you two handling this?'

'Jenny loves Andrea and Daniel and wants to make sure no one hurts them, even if it means helping us put away someone she's worked with for nine years. She's never been fond of Kailey outside the job, but she'll make sure everything stays on the level.'

'How are you handling it?'

'Sex helps,' Ryan said bluntly, making Beckett roll her eyes a little. 'It opens up the lines of communication. All those endorphins mean you're more likely to open your mouth and spill your guts. At the end of the day, we love each other and we're getting through it.'

'Glad to hear it.'

* * *

><p>Down at the precinct, Kailey looked around at the walls of the interrogation room, then at Beckett and Ryan when they came in, closed the door. She was read her rights as a formality only, and Beckett opened her leather-bound file folder, picked up a pen.<p>

'How long have you worked with Andrea Hennessey and Daniel Brick?'

'Just over seven years. Daniel was in obstetrics and working towards his nurse anesthetist's license. Andy was in triage before moving into pediatrics with myself and Jenny Ryan.'

'When did you become aware they were involved?'

'Last November. They'd spent Thanksgiving together and after a week or so, Andrea told myself and Whitney that she was going on a date with him. After that, we knew, even though they didn't make a big splashy announcement.'

'Must have been hard for you to see them together, no?' Ryan ventured. 'Big strapping guy like Daniel with a woman like Andrea.'

'Sure, I mean every woman's ego is crushed when she finds out a guy she's into isn't interested back.'

'Do you recognize this?' Beckett produced the evidence bags with the rings found inside the two victims.

'Sure that's Andrea's engagement ring. Why?'

'These were found in the stomach contents of the victims of the killer who wants Andrea and Daniel's wedding called off.'

Kailey studied the rings once more; then, her head whipped up as she connected the dots. 'You think I'm involved in this? What, that I went to my rich daddy like a spoiled brat and asked him to fix it?'

'You have reason to want them broken up, Kailey. You couldn't stand it that Andrea was with Daniel, someone you're obviously jealous of. A woman with your connections could make it happen easily without getting her hands dirty.'

'I'm not a home-wrecker and I'm not a killer!' Kailey shouted, then folded her arms over her chest. 'I think I'll contact my lawyer now.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	17. The Road Trip

At first, Beckett had wanted to balk at the summons she'd received to update her captain, but on the other hand, once she got on a roll, she realized she'd been holding in a lot of anger from the Kailey Sampras interview, and her commanding officer was more than willing to be a handy target for her vented frustration.

'She can protest it all she wants, sir, that woman is involved up to her eyeballs.'

'Be that as it may, it was only questioning, not a formal interview so we have to cut her loose.'

Montgomery twirled a pen in his fingers as he watched Beckett pace in his office. 'Where are we on the autopsy report, the CSU reports?'

'Lanie will have a finalized report to us by end of shift on Francis Reinhold, and we can look for a link between Fiona Birk and Francis Reinhold all we ant but the link is that they were both in touch with Andrea and Daniel about their wedding, that _is_ the link sir.'

'Get CSU to track the credit cards for those rings back to the company, find out which office they came from, see what you can dig up.' Montgomery set down his pen. 'How are you friends doing?'

'They're holding.' Beckett told her commanding officer of how Andrea was making herself sick and the captain shook his head.

'That's hard to hear, but from what I've heard you speak of her, Andrea sounds like she can hold her own. I also heard of the interview with her sisters. Where are we on them?'

'Sir you don't think one of them could be tied into it? They seem too...suburban for it.'

'Nonetheless when you have a woman being threatened to call off the wedding, it's necessary to look into all possible threats, family or none. Start digging out what you can on them. If you need a warrant, find something solid and I'll back you.'

'Thank you sir.'

Understanding this was her dismissal, Beckett left his office and made a beeline for Ryan's desk; the Irish detective was on the phone with his son, as was evident from the conversation.

'Don't worry, we'll make sure that you memorize your lines before the big night. Yes I know you want to make Mallory and Tessi proud. Okay, I have to go, buddy give Mama and Marsh-Mally kisses for me. Love you too, big guy.'

'Dell's got a part in the school pagent?'

'Yeah. Every year the K-to-sixes at Saint Bart's do a musical version of the nativity story, and each class picks one boy and one girl to be in the play with a speaking part. Dell is going to be a sheep at the inn in Bethlehem when Mary and Joseph arrive.'

'Good for him.'

'Wow.'

'What?'

Ryan tried to fight the goofy, fatherly grin and lost. 'Well, since you've gotten married and been pregnant and have a one-year-old now, you've mellowed a little bit on talking about personal things at the office.'

'If I start to sound like Esposito and become an oversharer, shoot me.'

'And we're back. What's the next step, boss?'

'Montgomery confirmed it to us we need to dig deeper on Andrea's sisters and to get CSU to track the credit cards all the way back to the source.'

'You want the harpies or the hackers?'

'Harpies. Woman to woman is always easier for ladies of that breed,' Beckett said with a little sneer in her voice.

Ryan nodded, headed for the elevator to head to CSU, while Beckett remained at her desk and began to call up all the information she could find on Geraldine Fitzpatrick, nee Hennessey and Cora Gaffigan, also nee Hennessey.

What she found was rather interesting.

Beckett printed sheets and articles from local papers, called up DMV and other official records to put together a picture of these women that Andrea had grown up with and by the time she was finished with it, she realized something very important that made her feel more than a little guilty - she and her friends should have adopted her way sooner.

By eleven, Ryan was back from CSU with his own hard data, and found his temporary partner firing up Brewster, the trusty espresso machine, for a double batch. 'So those credit cards are all link to accounts in Human Resources in the New York office, which is the step forward. The step backward is that they have three subcontracted companies within their payroll department, and any one of those offices could have access to the credit card numbers.'

'What if I told you I could narrow down that office to one?'

'Seriously?' Ryan went to the fridge for the carton of milk for steaming.

'I'm not just a pretty face you know. I dug into Andrea's sisters and Cora is an accountant with a firm in Westchester called Sparks and Foreman, which happens to be one of the companies that is subcontracted by Murdock Holdings Corporation to handle the diligence on their payroll.'

'Oh, I knew there was a reason for getting out of bed today.' Ryan forgot all about coffee. 'We hitting the road or what?'

'In a few minutes. I'm waiting to hear back from the head of the firm first.'

As if on cue, her cellphone rang, and Beckett took the call. Her implaccable nods had Ryan on edge, and when she hung up he all but leaped on her. 'So?'

'We're rolling to Westchester.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	18. The Pondering

The suburbs always weird Beckett out, not because she was under the impression that there was no such thing as life outside the city but because people didn't think it was possible to come from a good family with traditional values if you lived in the urban hell of a metropolis like the Big Apple. She'd turned out fine, hadn't she? So had Ryan and Esposito and Castle. They'd all had their ups and downs but if watching _Twin Peaks_ and _Blue Velvet_ had taught her anything, it was that Beckett knew small towns, where everyone was in each other's pockets and knew who washed who's dirty laundry, were way more messed up.

'I know if I ever find myself living out here it's because I'm in a coma and experiencing severe and pervasive hallucinations,' Beckett commented as they rolled past the colonial homes with their terrifyingly well-kept yards. 'And because I'll be wearing pearls and baking cookies.'

'You wore pearls at your wedding and you were baking all the time with Meredeth when you were on mat leave,' Ryan reminded her. 'Not to mention Christmas is coming up and you know how much we love that German beer cake you make for the staff holiday party.'

'But I'm not wearing pearls while I cook, am I? I bet Cora does. I bet she wears a triple rope of six-mill pearls to make cookies for the staff room.'

'Welcome to Bitterville.'

'Not bitter, angry.' Beckett turned down the street the nice GPS lady had warned her about a half-mile before. 'When I was about seventeen, looking into universities, my mom decided to take me to one of her sorority reunions. Here I am so proud of her, my mom the lawyer and professor, ready to brag to them all, and we get to the party, all they can do is look down their noses at her that she married someone who went to trade school and had only one baby, and is still living in the city. They treated her like some kind of pathetic outcast and I remember thinking, she's helped put criminals behind bars, given the innocent and ill-funded their fair day in court, hell she probably taught some of their kids in their undergrad, how dare they act like she's the loser when the most exciting thing they have to talk about is their PTA meetings.'

'I go to PTA meetings for Dell,' Ryan pointed out.

'Yeah, but it's not the centre of your universe, is it?'

'Dell, Jenny and Mally are the centre of my universe, and it's my job to be a good cop to keep them safe in the city.'

'Exactly. I don't know, Gerry and Cora just seem so conflicted. It's like Cora wants her sister to be some pencil housewife from Wisteria Lane and Gerry thinks she should hook a smart, protective man to show her what to do since she's not terribly bright.'

'Put them together and it's June Cleaver meets Bride of Dracula.'

'At risk of repeating myself, exactly. Here we are.'

The Crown Vic rolled to a stop outside the modest office building, a quick scan of the building guide told them they'd find the offices of Sparks and Foreman on level four. The space was brightly lit and smelled of lemon air freshener, and there was a couple of ficus trees in brass pots by the reception desk. Going for the small-town approach, Beckett left her badge clipped on her belt and instead removed her leather gloves as she approached the desk.

'Hello, how can I help you today?' The receptionist was a sweet-faced girl who barely looked old enough to drive.

'My name is Detective Kate Beckett, this is Detective Ryan, we're with the NYPD. We're here to see Cora Gaffigan regard a case I'm investigating.'

The receptionist went pale as her cream Laura Ashley blouse. 'Oh, gee, I don't know...just a moment please.' She picked up her desk line, called her manager. 'Jake, it's Emmaline at the front desk, there are two NYPD officers here to see Cora Gaffigan. Oh. Okay. Yes I'll bring them right through.'

Emmaline stood up, twisting her fingers together; Ryan didn't blame her. Most women like her probably only had to talk to cops at charity fundraiser barbecues or if they got a speeding ticket. She was quick and efficient in showing them into a conference room, went straight to the coffee maker and began to brew a pot. She brought over cups and a plate of pastries, the scent of which had both detectives realizing that breakfast had been a long time ago. While Ryan had dove into a cherry-cheese Danish without thinking twice, Beckett was torn between an apple fritter and a blueberry muffin.

'Not Meredeth's, but not bad,' Ryan mumbled around his mouthful, washed it down with coffee. He wiped the crumbs off his mouth with a napkin just as a stocky man with a thinning crew-cut and penny-lens glasses accompanied Cora in. Somehow, she looked even more stick-like than when she'd been at the Precinct.

'Detectives, I'm sorry we have to meet again under these circumstances.'

'Likewise, Missus Gaffigan.'

'I'm Jacob Sims, I'm the office manager here,' the stocky man added, offering his hand to Ryan.

'Yes, of course. I'm Detective Ryan, I have a few questions to ask you in private.' Taking the pro-active role and sending the message to Cora loud and clear, Ryan stood up, returned the handshake. 'Might we speak in your office?'

When the men were gone, Beckett pulled her leather-bound file from her satchel, opened it on the table. She drew out a pen and gave her quarry a level stare. 'Let's talk about Andrea.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	19. The Plot Thickens

'Cora, I'm going to advise you of your rights,' Beckett began, 'just as a precaution, should you chose to invoke your right to counsel.'

'That's fine. I have nothing to hide.'

The confidence in her eyes was unlike the inflated-ego she'd seen in Kailey's. This was a hard-headed woman who would save her own ass above everything else, Beckett knew, and that was fine by her. In fact in might be a little bit fun.

'Cora, how long have you worked for Sparks and Foreman?'

'Since college, it will be seventeen years next May.'

'And how long have you handled the subcontract for the Murdock Holdings Corporation?'

'After Marcos Huntington started dating our mother eight years ago, and I stayed on after they were married and divorced.'

Beckett felt her stomach bounce but her expression remained even. 'Your mother and Marcos Huntington were married?'

'For like fourteen months. He was catting around on her, and it's no wonder with the way she let herself go. She thought she could go on all those trips and not stick to a diet and now she can barely fit a size six. It was just awful when we had to go to her tailor's after the divorce.' Cora combed her stick-thin fingers through her hair. 'And don't even get me started on Andrea and her so-called marriage. The way that man has taken pity on her is...well, let's just say I'll be the first one to say 'I told you so' when he leaves her.'

'We'll get back to that. Tell me more about your responsibilities to Murdock Holdings Corporation.'

'I handle the expense accounts of the New York office, anything that would be comped as a business expense. Cash receipts, debits, credit card purchases.'

'Do you recognize these accounts?'

Beckett pulled the bank trace records, let Cora examine them.

'Yes these are three cards all registered to Human Resources department of MHC,' she confirmed. 'I recognize the expenses from this past week.'

'What about this charge at Maison Bijou for a diamond engagement ring? How might that be classified as a business expense?'

'I'm not sure I follow.'

'The murders I'm investigating in Manhattan, each victim had a ring found amongst their stomach contents. The rings all have serial numbers to correspond to purchase receipts, and each was purchased on these credit cards.' Beckett tapped the sheet of credit card trace. 'So I'll ask again, how would a diamond engagement ring be classified as a business expense?'

'Clearly someone must have gotten ahold of the credit card numbers and committed ID fraud.'

'See I don't buy that Cora. These rings were purchased on November twenty-second. Today is December fifth, which means you would have had to do an end-of-month report and I sincerely doubt a woman as shrewd as yourself would have let something as big as credit-card fraud slip through the cracks on such an important client.' She paused for effect. 'Unless you know something about it that you're not sharing.'

Cora's hands fluttered as she pulled the trace-records back into better view. It was the first crack in her composure and Beckett leaped on it. 'You want to know what I think, Cora? That you are so twisted up over your sister's engagement that you would go to any length to make sure that it doesn't happen. What I can't figure out is why you'd want that, or for that matter, how you could hate your sister so much.'

'It's not hate, it's bafflement,' she replied primly. 'Andrea is such a disappointment to all of us, you know? I mean, she doesn't take any pride in her body otherwise she wouldn't be so fat, she thinks she's actually making a difference at a hospital in the city where people don't give a damn if you live or die, and now she actually thinks this man Daniel is going to marry her. I just can't figure out what on earth he could have done to make her think it's going to happen.'

Beckett was tempted to take Cora into custody, deeming her a hazard to herself so she could get the woman in for a psych diagnosis but she brought the questions back to focus. 'The point is, three rings were purchased on company credit cards registered to Murdock Holdings Corporation. Rings that are identical to Andrea's engagement ring , I might add, and since there was no stolen credit card report filed-'

'Did it ever occur to you, you stupid bitch, that maybe we want to handle something like that in house?' Cora snapped.

'I'll take into consideration that you're feeling upset and confused as to how your company might be involved in two murders but you speak to me like that again and you'll be under arrest for verbally assaulting an officer. On top of which, you lack of co-operation tempts me to call a judge and push through a warrant for the account records you've handled for Murdock Holdings Corp.'

'Try it, I dare you. You'll be tied up in red tape until the Fourth of July.'

There was a knock on the conference room door and Ryan stuck his head in. 'Detective Beckett, I need to speak with you a moment. Privately.'

'Excuse me,' Beckett said to Cora; outside the conference room, Beckett saw Jacob standing pale-faced beside Ryan. 'What is it?'

'Jacob has just finished showing me Cora's files. There's no record of her working on Murdock Holdings Corporation in any capacity.' Ryan hesitated, then added, 'Two of credit cards were authorized to Cora's signature alone.'

'What the hell is she up to?'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	20. The Plates to Spin

Beckett called Judge Markaway for the warrant on Cora's files, to which he informed her he wanted a face-to-face meeting before he issued the paper. It was grinding but Beckett believed Cora was cocky enough to think she'd get away with whatever she was involved with that no records would be destroyed in the intervening time.

'Okay, let's go through this so that when we get in front of Markaway, we'll have a clear and concise explanation,' Beckett suggested to Ryan as she eased onto the freeway. 'We are investigating two homicides in New York City. Both bodies were found in buildings owned by MHC, and both had links to Andrea Hennessey and Daniel Brick.'

'When the ME did the autopsies, rings identical to Andrea Hennessey's were found in both victims. Tracing the rings back to point-of-purchase led us to suspicious accounting and credit card transactions on one Visa and two Mastercards issued to MHC's HR department,' Ryan continued. 'Further investigation has led us to believe that corporate accounting fraud of some kind is taking place at the Westchester firm of Sparks and Foreman who are subcontracted by MHC for certain financial activities.'

'Don't forget the Cayman connection, a place ripe with money laundering. There's also the juicy little tidbit that Andrea's mother's second husband was MHC's CEO and father to the woman working with Andrea who has a bad grudge against her for becoming involved with the man that she wanted for herself.'

'Seriously?'

'Yeah.'

'Okay, are we investigating a murder on _Young and the Restless_ or something?'

'Further proof that truth is stranger than fiction. So here's the Double Jeopardy question - what do you get when you put together a jealous sister, a rich CEO step-daddy, the Cayman islands, a nurse with a grudge, and two dead bodies all in the name of splitting up a very happy couple?'

'Conspiracy.'

Beckett tapped the tip of her nose. 'We're going hunting for a pro. Someone disposable who can be sold out and will do the time without so much as a squeak so that the real parties responsible get away with it.'

'Clearly they didn't count on us, or the fact we've adopted Andrea and Daniel.'

'About that.' Beckett pursed her lips. 'I think we need to do something tonight, provided we don't get a break in the case, for them both. It's poker night at the loft, I'll ask Castle to make room at the table for them both.'

'That sounds like a good plan. And that way if something happens, we're all there for them.'

They rode in silence for a little while, which Ryan broke with a theory he'd been chewing on for awhile. 'Beckett, you remember that Andrea said her mother is on her third hubby down in the Caymans, too?'

'Yeah.'

'What if it's another situation like Kyra Blaine? Remember how her husband's uncle was in charge of the trust fund and he'd tried to use the bridesmaid Sophie to get the wedding called off so the groom wouldn't find out that his wedding gift had been mismanaged by said uncle and the fund was empty?'

'Sure.'

'What if the same kind of thing?' Ryan thought out loud. 'Think about it. Andrea comes from money, a lot of money. She got the lion's share of her father's estate after he died, right? There has to be a portion of it set aside for her wedding and Andrea would have had that money left in trust which she couldn't legally touch until she was married, probably by her mother. What if that money's gone and Cora's tossing smoke screens up while she gets mommy to tap a rich ex to hire a killer and split them up? They already think Andrea's spineless and brainless and will do whatever she's told.'

'That's not bad, Ryan. You work on it when we get back. After Markaway, of course. I want Cora crispy fried and served on a platter.'

* * *

><p>When they got back to the city, after a quick detour to the Blue Moon Cafe across the street from the precinct for sandwiches, Beckett and Ryan continued on to Markaway's chambers to present their case and he issued their warrant, which they passed to CSU to extract all the files pertaining to MHC under Cora Gaffigan's purview from both Murdock Holding Corporation and the firm in Westchester.<p>

As Riley Fontina and his minions worked their digital magic, Beckett stared at her murder board and felt a small glower of frustration - she knew that they would probably find proof of a hired killer in Cora's files but there was no hard evidence on her board that pointed to a suspect. It made her more than a little cranky.

Since there was only one good way for her to cure a crank like this, she popped the disc into her computer and began to comb through the footage outside the warehouse on the night of Francis Reinhold's murder to try and figure out just how the hell the killer had managed to avoid being caught on film.

Two hours later, when she thought her eyes were going to shrivel up in their sockets, Beckett's eye caught something just at the edge of the frame. She paused the video, drummed her fingers on the desk. Could it be that dirt simple, that they'd been looking for a clever getaway that they didn't see something in plain sight?

'Ryan,' she called out, and her fellow detective rolled over in his desk chair. 'Do me a favour, can you get a subway map and blueprint?'

'Why?'

'I think I know how our killer's staying hidden.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	21. The Balance

An hour later, Ryan and Beckett were studying the subway map and shaking their heads. 'It's genius, really, in its simplicity,' he commented. 'Almost...oh, I better not say that.'

'No, say it.'

'You'll hit me.'

'I'm not going to hit you,' Beckett assured him.

'Alright, it's almost something Castle would come up with. Ow!' Ryan rubbed his shoulder. 'See, I knew you'd do that.'

'I whacked you because you're acting the same age as your son. And you're right, it is something convoluted that my husband would come up with, which is why it makes sense. Sir.' Beckett nodded at the captain who'd approached the board with the map on it. 'We think we've figured out how our killer avoided the traffic cams and being seen with a dead body.'

'He's using the subway utility lines?' Montgomery studied the highlighted zig-zags on the maps.

'It makes sense sir. There's an air-duct beneath the block of warehouses that hook into the maintenance tunnels of the Green and Red Lines, moving completely underground and out of the way to deposit Fiona Birk's body. There's a service entrance opposite the entrance to Herman park, he could have easily.'

'Well the question is, why move Fiona?'

'To make sure she's found right away,' Ryan answered. 'Set off the chain of the events that has brought us here.'

'How is figuring this out relevant to finding the suspect?'

Beckett swallowed a little; she knew their captain was going to ask them this. 'Because we believe this level of extreme precaution means we're dealing with a pro who's doing the dirty work of one of three possible people. Ryan.'

'We believe we're looking at a conspiracy here, sir.' Taking his cue, the detective dragged over his murder board where he'd created a little Cosmos of Killers - he'd pinned up pictures of his players into a little circle around the . 'We have Kailey Sampras who was in love with Daniel and was absolutely livid when he began to date Andrea. She is the one who would hear Andrea talking about wedding plans and Andrea wouldn't think twice of talking about them in the cafeteria at the hospital when having lunch with her and her other co-workers.'

'Of course, like women - or most women - are included to do,' Montgomery agreed.

'Then we have Cora Gaffigan, Andrea's sister, who does the books on Murdock Holdings Corporation,' Ryan continued. 'She is already in hot water over the rings comped as a business expense. She could very easily noodle with the books to cover up other dirty business dealings like hiring a killer.'

'What about these?' He pointed to a pair of question marks

'Our killer and the person tipping off the killer. Of course, it could turn out to be the tipster is one of these people already, but the killer is definitely someone different.'

'Dig on Cora's work files and if you find what your after I'll push for your warrant to be extended to her own records. I have to go update my bosses on this one.'

Montgomery left and Beckett turned back to Ryan. She held out her fingertips and Ryan couldn't stop the laugh. 'Now who's acting like my son?'

Beckett laughed, the sound carrying over as she answered her ringing cellphone. 'Beckett.'

'Hi-hi, Mumum.'

'Well, hello my little prince, how are you.'

'Miss you.'

'I miss you too, sweetie.' Beckett said it automatically, but as she heard RJ's voice, looked at the picture on her desk from his birthday jut that past weekend. 'How is your day with Daddy going?'

'Tookies wit' ships!'

'You made chocolate chips cookies? Are they yummy?'

'Mm-mm-mm. Me an' Less.'

'Where's Daddy?' Beckett asked, a little concerned.

'Mis shobbin'.'

'Oh is he now?'

'Pises.'

She laughed. RJ was most definitely Alexis' little brother, he just loved surprises, even at one year old. 'Well, you and me are going to have to get Daddy and Alexis some surprises soon, too.'

'Shin too.'

'One for Shane too,' Beckett agreed. 'Let me talk to Alexis for a minute.'

There was a shuffle, RJ's little voice coming through loud and clear as he told Less 'Tot Mumum', and then Alexis was on the line.

'Hi Mom, RJ was missing you so I told him since he was a good boy at nap-time, we could give you a quick call. You going to be home for dinner?'

'I don't know, the case is gaining momentum here. I'll call, okay?'

'Okay, Love you. Yes, RJ, hold on.' There was another shuffle, and RJ was back on the phone again. 'Love Mumum.'

'Love you too, buddy. See you soon.'

'Dash baddies. Bubub.'

Beckett hung up, the itch in her neck caused by only one thing - Ryan staring at her like a circus freak. 'What? I'm not allowed to be cute with my son on the phone while at work, too?'

'I didn't think you'd let yourself be cute on the phone with your son while you're at work, that's all. I like it. It's a real mother-warrior thing. Anyways, the files from Sparks and Foreman just came through. You want the Fiona Birk credit card or the Francis Reinhold one?'

'I'll take Birk, you take Reinhold. Any crossover purchases or suspicious transactions, mark them and we'll compare notes in a few.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	22. The Showdown

They trip to Westchester had been most definitely worth it, as the files the interview had warranted revealed some very interesting things, not the least of which was that Cora was into some shady accounting. It also told them that as a result of the extravagant spending that Murdock Holdings Corporation was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy in their New York office; it gave even more weight to Ryan's theory that it was Kyra Blaine all over again.

Though it was time-consuming and Beckett was an hour late leaving the precinct, they had their warrant for all of Cora's communications and bank records, which made her happy - the prissy little twit would be coming to the city for questioning for murder, and most likely end up in prison courtesy of the IRS.

As they would take receipt of the files the next morning, they'd done what they could for the night - she, Ryan and the captain were all in agreement that they would find their killer in those files - Beckett offered to give Ryan a lift home, which had his eyebrows lifting.

'That's a little out of your way, isn't it?'

'I'm going to stop by Andrea and Daniel's on my way home. I want to update her on what we've found.'

'I'll come with. I'm your partner for the time being, remember?' Ryan reminded her, grinning. 'Besides, Daniel had a Keurig coffee maker.'

'You're going on official business, Detective, not for tea-time.'

'Don't see why it can't be both.'

* * *

><p>They stepped off the elevator in Andrea and Daniel's apartment building, or 'Dandrea' as Ryan liked to call them, and they were on alert. The sound of raised voices coming from the Dandrea apartment had each of them reaching for their side-arms and Ryan pounding on the door.<p>

'NYPD!' he hollered, weapon drawn. 'Andrea! Daniel! It's Ryan and Beckett!'

The noise didn't abate and Ryan shoved his shoulder into the door, which flew open and he kept his wea[pon raised as he took in the scene he saw: Andrea red-faced and pacing in the living room while Gerry stood primly by the refrigerator and Daniel stuck in the middle, trying to be a mediator. Even the police bursting in didn't stop the fight in progress.

'How dare you come into my home and speak to me like that, Gerry! How _dare_ you! Daniel and I are not calling off the wedding, he loves me very much despite the fact that you and Cora do everything to put our relationship down and abuse you inflict on me!'

'Abuse?' Gerry looked sincerely surprised at the notion. 'Honey, all we want to do is help you.'

'The fuck you do, all you want to push me down and try to keep me the scared, insecure teenager I used to be.' Andrea waved her arm in a wild flourish. 'No more, I'm done smiling and nodding at you two, I 'm _fucking_ done with it! Daniel and I are in love, we want a life and a family together. We. Are. Getting. Married. End of story. You need to leave now.'

'You selfish little bitch, you sincerely think you're worth all this fuss? Do you know your stupidty has Cora being questioned by the police?'

'If Cora's done something wrong, it's her fault. The fact it's connected to this case just brought it to light.'

'No if she's having problems at work because of this case, it is your fault, but I'd expect nothing but lack of responsibility for it from a fat, dumb bitch like you.'

Andrea lunged at Gerry and Daniel grabbed her biceps to hold her back from clawing Gerry's face to ribbons, no matter how much she deserved it, and nodded at Ryan and Beckett. 'Detectives.'

The acknowledgment of their arrival had Gerry turning firing eyes on the two police officers. 'Thank god you're here, I think you need to sit my sister down and talk to her, make sure she understands just how much better off everyone is going to be once she does the right thing and ends things with Daniel.'

'Geraldine, you have five seconds to leave before I arrest you for trespassing,' Beckett said in a frosty voice.

'I'm not done talking to her yet.'

'Yes you are. Four seconds.'

'You think you can make me leave?' Gerry challenged her with a cocky smirk.

'Ryan,' was all Beckett said and her partner took his handcuffs off his belt, advanced towards the woman.

'Turn around, ma'am.'

'Fine. I'll leave. But this isn't over, Andrea Darcy,' Gerry warned and left, slamming the door behind her.

Alone with her love and her friends, Andrea collapse into tears of shock. 'Oh, oh that felt so good,' she exclaimed to Daniel, turning to him and throwing herself into his arms.

'My hero,' he murmured, stroking her hair, her back, then looked up at Beckett and Ryan. 'You guys weren't called by the neighbours, were you?'

'We were coming here anyways with an update,' Ryan reassured the shaken couple. 'Why don't we sit down, take a breath and you can update us with your own troubles.'

'In a minute. My stomach's churning like madness, I think I'm going to be sick again.' Andrea darted into the bathroom and they all turned a blind ear to the sound of her retching once more.

'My poor girl,' Daniel sighed, looking at the door. 'All her emotions are expressing themselves as vomit.'

'Poor girl,' Beckett echoed.

'I'll make coffee, fill you in.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	23. The Update

As the coffee dripped through, Daniel leaned up against the kitchen counter. Under the kitchen light, Beckett could see dark circles under his eyes which told her he was getting about as much sleep as Andrea was.

'We went Christmas shopping for my family this afternoon and we'd just gotten home when Gerry texted Andrea. She was in the city and wanted to stop by. I could tell that Andrea didn't want to see her, but it would be worse if she didn't at least see what she wanted.'

'Been there,' Ryan sympathized with him.

'Gerry arrives and at first it seems like everything is going to be relatively civilized, until...'

He trailed off, dragged his hands over his face. 'Gerry put a stack of money on the table, said she would match the wager she and Cora had going for me to leave Andrea so no one else had to die.'

'She tried to buy you off?'

'She said that it was fine when only Andrea was getting hurt but now that people were needlessly dying because Andrea was being so immature and naive to think I'd actually go through with the wedding, she had to stop it once and for all.'

'What did Andrea say to this?' Beckett asked.

'She reached her boiling point and asked her sister if she truly thought that little of her. Gerry tried to say that she was doing it because she loved her and Andrea snapped.'

'Damn right I did.'

All three looked over at Andrea who was pink in the cheeks but considerably calmer-looking. She walked over, cuddled against Daniel's chest as his arms came around her. For a moment they looked so peaceful in their embrace that neither Beckett nor Ryan wanted to disturb them. Thankfully, they were saved from interrupting when Andrea patted Daniel's stomach, then took a seat between the two detectives at the kitchen table.

'It's one thing for them to call me names and put me down. I've tuned them out as much as I can but when they go after my man like that, I draw my line in the sand.'

'Babe you want coffee?'

Andrea felt her stomach turn greasily, shook her head. 'No, sweetie, I'm fine.'

'Tea it is.'

She opened her mouth to protest when he filled up a small teapot with boiling water from the fancy coffee maker, then remembered Beckett's advice from a few days before. She needed to let Daniel do what he could for her, since he was going through it with her. 'Tea sounds great. So, is there anything new, or is this just to see how far I've cracked up?'

'We do have an update for you, but it's not one that's easy to hear.'

Andrea nodded solemnly, felt Daniel walk up behind her. She reached for his hand, found them on her shoulders. 'After hearing someone's murdered two people because you won't break up with the love of your life, what is and isn't easy to hear gets a little skewed.'

'Okay then.' Ryan took a deep breath. 'The course of our investigation has led us to both Kailey Sampras as a person of interest as well as your sister Cora, whom we are bringing in for questioning.'

'Jesus Christ.' Andrea closed her eyes, thumped the back of her head against Daniel's solid body. 'I...what do I say to that?'

'There's more. Even if Cora isn't involved in these murders, we've uncovered evidence that Cora's been cooking the books for Murdock Holdings Corporation.'

'That doesn't surprise me. When our mother was married to Marcos, Marcos gave Cora whatever she wanted and Cora acted like she was the golden girl, completely immune to every rule. She was facing suspension from high school for bullying another student and Marcos donated funds for a new library. Suddenly, Cora's no longer suspended.'

'Would she be above hiding money or adjusting the ledgers so that personal spending would appear as business expenses?'

'If she thinks there's something in there for her, not at all.' Andrea took the tea Daniel had made for her, sipped. 'Oh that's nice.'

'What would be in it for her.'

'Honestly, given what just transpired between me and Gerry, I wouldn't put it past her to have gone to Marcos and say that she needs mine and Daniel's wedding

Ryan added sugar to the coffee Daniel set on the table for him. 'What about your money, what are you standing to inherit from your father's estate once you and Daniel are married?'

'We receive two million dollars in the form of a joint savings account, a trust fund for future children and his winter house in Saint Kitts.'

'And if something happens to you?'

'If I'm married it passes to my spouse and heirs. If not, it's divided amongst charities and foundations of my choice. After Christmas last year, I had my will changed so it wouldn't pass to my sisters. Why do you ask?'

'Just getting a picture of why you've been targeted.'

'Okay.' Andrea gave a weighty sigh, then squeezed her eyes shut as tears leaked out. 'God, I am so sick of this, we didn't do anything to deserve this. I just want a shred of normalcy back.'

'I know, sweetheart, I want it back too.' Daniel kissed the top of her head. 'We'll get through it.'

'Why don't you come to dinner at the loft tonight?' Beckett suggested. 'My husband made Mexican and always makes more than necessary.'

'That would be lovely. Thanks.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	24. The Family Dinner

It was indeed a full house when Beckett arrived home with Andrea and Daniel at the loft - not only were her husband, son and daughter there, but also her mother-in-law and her daughter's boyfriend as well. Castle and Shane were working on something in the kitchen while Alexis set the table and Martha played with RJ.

'Hello, everyone, we're home.'

'Mumum!' His grams forgotten, RJ scooted off his spot on the couch and zipped over to give his mom a big hug and kiss hello. 'You late.'

'I know, but that's going to happen sometimes.'

'Dash baddies?'

'We found one of them'

'Yea Mumum.' RJ kissed her cheek, then smiled shyly at the guests she'd brought with her. 'Hi Annie. Tote bedda.'

The little boy patted the front of his neck, and Andrea's heart melted. 'That's good to hear, honey.'

'Mun-shee?'

'We're all feeling munchy, go ask your grams to help you get cleaned up for dinner.' Beckett blew a raspberry on his cheek then set him on his feet with a pat on the butt, then turned back to their impromptu guests.

'Make yourselves at home, I'm going to go get changed.'

Beckett disappeared upstairs, pausing to give her husband a kiss while Daniel kept a grip on Andrea's hand and took her over to the kitchen. 'Smells amazing in here.'

'We're having fajitas and burrimales. Tamales made with burrito beef and beans,' Alexis explained, putting bowls of salsa and pico-de-gallo on the table. 'Can I get you a soft drink or a beer?'

'Oh, yes a soft drink would be lovely,' Andrea sighed as her stomach gave an enormous rumble. She hadn't realized until she'd walked into the loft that she was starving; she'd barely eaten in the last two days. 'Mind if I get a preview?'

Daniel watched her wander over to the pan of deliciousness Shane was stirring, felt a little of the tension of the last two days slide away as he watched her steal a spoonful of whatever he was making. It was the first solid thing she'd eaten since Monday morning. He sidled over to where Castle was pulling wrapped bundles from the stock-pot. 'Thank you for letting us come for dinner, I don't know what to say to-'

'Daniel we adopted you and Andrea, you're in need of friends right now,' Castle reminded him. 'We take care of our people.'

'I just don't want to be an imposition.'

'You're not. Even with an extra two mouths, we'll still have enough to feed Shane his midnight snack when he goes on nights in a few hours.'

'Hey!' Shane pretend to be insulted as he dumped the fajita meat into a serving bowl.

'Dad, would you rather I be his midnight snack?' Alexis teased him, knowing it would make her father grimace; sure enough, he pulled a face, gave an exaggerated shudder.

'It's bad enough I know you're being all kissy in private, I don't need it at my dinner table. The same cannot be said for these.' Castle passed her the bowl of steaming little bundles of yummy. 'I think we're ready to eat.'

'Mumum! Daddy! Nee hans!'

RJ made the announcement as he came back in the room with Martha, who was shaking her head.

'This is a very stubbornly independent young man. He insisted on turning the taps on and off himself,' she told her son as she strapped RJ into his high-chair. 'Reminds me of another one I know.'

'Makes me wonder just what's going to go on here while I'm at work,' Beckett added, coming downstairs in a warm sweater and her jeans. 'We ready to eat?'

Everyone found a place around the table, tucking in like the addition of Andrea and Daniel was nothing out of the ordinary. They passed bowls of steaming fragrant food around, the conversation being so blessedly normal that Andrea wanted to weep. She could feel Daniel's stress level going further and further down as they ate, even talked about the wedding with their friends as they inquired; being able to talk about the wedding without feeling a soul crushing amount of guilt was such a wonderful feeling.

'We're thinking an outdoor ceremony at The River Valley Inn on October fifteenth. We were there last summer and it was just gorgeous, and we know we want a fall wedding,' Daniel told them, which had them all nodding.

'What about colours?'

'A harvest palette,' Andrea said, her fork working over-time; the lack of incoming calories in the previous two days made her feel like she could eat the whole table, cutlery and all. 'Deep rich reds and bronzes and golds and burnt oranges. But it also depends on how many bridesmaids I decide to have and how many ushers Daniel wants too.'

'I only had Alexis, but Meredeth had three plus a maid of honour and the balance of them in the photos looked really nice,' Beckett said, her wheels turning as she watched Andrea shovel in the last of her second tamale and look up and down the table for more with a slight tinge of guilt. 'Andrea, eat up, no one's going to take it away from you.'

She watched as Andrea loaded up her plate again, thinking of the stories she'd heard from both Daniel and Andrea herself, and made a mental note to talk to Meredeth about having a girls' dinner in Chelsea the night they wrapped the case. No way was she ever going to let her new friend ever feel ashamed of herself ever again.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	25. The 4 Year Old Perspective

While Andrea and Daniel enjoyed Mexican in SoHo, Ryan was enjoying Italian in Clinton - Honey-Milk had made spaghetti, meatballs, and cooked up some of his falafal balls; was there ever going to be a way to say that without it sounding dirty?

The kids had just finished their meal when he walked in the door, as was evidenced from the sea of red sauce on Mallory's mouth. His precious little jewel looked like the joker when she grinned at him, showing off tiny little white teeth.

'Daddy home!'

Dell glanced over his shoulder, as did Honey-Milk from where they were loading their bowls in the dishwasher. 'Hi Daddy! You are jus' in time for dessert! Or do you want your fall-off balls?'

The laugh bubbled up out of Ryan's belly after a truly draining day. 'I believe they're called falafal balls, Dell-arino.'

'Mama say they are suh-pecial for you 'cause you don' eat animals.'

'That's right.'

'Why not?'

'Because about two months before you were born, Mama didn't want to eat any meat so I gave it up with her. After you were born, she started eating meat again, but I didn't.'

'Oh.' Dell furrowed his brow. 'That's funny Daddy, but you gotta do what is bes' for you. That's what you always say, right?'

'Exactly.'

'Can I do my needles out here tonight, Mama?'

'Nee-nells,' Mallory added while Honey-Milk wiped her hands and mouth off. 'Nee-nells oush.'

'I'd rather you didn't, Dell, you know it upsets Mallory.'

Dell pouted. 'I don' want Daddy eating alone.'

'Thanks, little bro.' Ryan scooped pasta on his plate, added his falafal and sauce. 'We'll have dessert together, how's that?'

'Sounds good.'

'And it's time for your bath, young missy.' Honey-Milk unbuckled their daughter from her high-chair, gave her husband a kiss as he walked past. 'Hi.'

'Hello.'

Ryan didn't have time to focus on the fact he'd just walked in the door, and his family was finishing the meal without him - one of the pitfalls of being a cop - as the beast in his gut was snarling 'feed me' and truthfully was thankful for a little tranquility after breaking up the family fight between Andrea and Gerry. His timing was impeccable as he'd just finished shoveling the last of his pasta when he heard Honey-Milk and Mallory's voices come out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. His little girl was wrapped in her towel and her blond curls stuck damply to her head.

'Pash-pash, Daddy.'

'Did you go splash-splash?' Ryan smiled at her and she nodded. 'Now it's pyjama time, right?'

'No nooze.'

'No, it's not snooze time yet,' Honey-Milk agreed, kissing her husband once more. 'We'll have dessert with Daddy, right?'

'Do-dur.'

'That's right we'll have some frozen yogurt. Can you check on Dell, make sure he's okay with his needle?'

Ryan nodded, rinsing his plate and leaving it in the sink while he went to check on his son. For a moment, he stood in the doorway of Dell's bedroom and watched him. He'd never forget the Hallowe'en night he'd nearly lost his boy, when Honey-Milk hadn't been able to wake him from a nap because, they'd learned at the hospital, he'd been in such a low-sugar state he couldn't wake up. He'd cried every time he'd had to have his insulin injection; now he could give them to himself, like right now. He'd taken off his shirt, and was just finished jabbing himself in the shoulder, making a cranky face as he hit the plunger.

'Ice cream, swimming in the ocean, drawing with Tessi,' he mumbled over and over, then removed his injector-pen from his shoulder, screwed on the sharps-cap.

'What's up with the chanting, Dell?'

Dell looked up, grinned at his father with a little bashfulness. 'The nurse said when we are learning to give ourselves the needles, if we are a little suh-cared we should say out loud a list of favourite things.'

'That's a good idea. Don't forget to put your sharps in your bucket, right?'

'Right. Daddy?'

'Yes.'

'Did you have to tell a family today someone died?'

'No, I didn't.'

'Did you catch a bad guy?' he asked, tugging on his shirt and getting stuck which had Ryan coming over to help him. 'Thank you, Daddy.'

'We found out who one of the bad guys is, and we will be making sure he or she goes to trial and then goes to jail for a long time.'

'That is good. Is Andy suh-till sad?'

Ryan nodded solemnly. 'She had dinner at Auntie Kate and Uncle Rick's tonight. She's been very worried and sick to her tummy.'

'Is she having a baby? Mama got sick all the time when she was guh-rowin' Marsh-Mally.'

'No, Dell, sometimes when we're really worried, our tummies get really upset,' he explained. 'Mama did the same thing when you were little and you had to go to the hospital when we found out about your diabetes.'

'Can we make a card for Andy? You can take it to her, Daddy.' In Dell's mind, a card with kind words was the best way to cheer someone up; he'd learned this from watching Tessi make her mother pretty pictures while Meredeth had been growing the twins in her belly. 'Cards are nice.'

'I think she'd really like that.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	26. The Loving I

When Ryan flopped into bed after Dell and Mallory were both tucked in, he lay there like a dead fish - eyes glazed over, tongue poking out between his lips. He was utterly exhausted and ready for a little cuddle with his wife followed by some much needed sleep.

He felt the weight on the bed shift, then his wife's hands on his naked back and nearly whimpered in delight.

'Oh yeah, honey, that's it,' he sighed, making Honey-Milk chuckle.

'Figured you'd want one of these after being on the go for so long today. How did it go in Westchester?'

'Suburbs scare me and Beckett.'

'Ah, my true-blue New Yorker.'

Ryan stretched and writhed under her touch like a dog getting his belly rubbed. 'A little to the right, mmm yes. Mostly it's the mentality that you can't raise a family with proper values and a sense of community in the city, that it's cold and distant. The suburbs are smaller, they are way more screwed up.'

'I think Andrea's home-life as a child proves that in spades.'

'I think so too. We had to break up a fight at her place just before end of shift, it's why I was late.'

'A fight?' Honey-Milk's massaging hands paused on Ryan's back. 'Her and Daniel were fighting? Did he hit her?'

'No, no, not Dandrea. Andrea and one of her sisters, who tried to pay Daniel to break up with Andrea so that there would be no more deaths. Turns out, that's the tipping point for Andrea.'

'I'd imagine so. It's the golden rule of family. Siblings can talk smack to each other all they want, it's their brother or sister. But you shoot your mouth off at their spouse, the hammer's gonna ring down.'

'Exactly. I can get away with calling Kelsey Keiko the Killer Whale while she's still taking off her preggo pounds, but anyone else tries it and they're in for a surprise nose-job.' But it had Ryan's brain clicking away once more. 'What if that was the point?'

'What, getting Andrea angry?'

'Yeah, what if they were going to try and make it look like Andrea's the guilty party? I've been thinking about this all night, why would it be Gerry who went to Andrea and cause such a ruckus? It's always been Cora who's caused the majority of Andrea's problems.'

Honey-Milk nibbled her lower lip, pondered it herself. 'You're right, that is weird. Any time I've talked to Andrea about her sisters causing problems, it's usually centred on Cora.'

'Cora's the one with the link to the company, she's the one who stands to lose the most from the marriage, because Andrea gets a really nice inheritance from her father as a wedding gift. Cora's cooking the books on a company that's facing Chapter Eleven bailout. If something happens to Andrea, whether it's incarceration or death, they would take control of that money.'

'What about her own bank accounts?'

'No, Andrea had her will changed that all of her money goes to her spouse and if she's unmarried, it goes to charities of her choice. Her sisters can't touch one red cent of it.' Ryan rolled over, gave his wife a smacking kiss. 'Give me two seconds to write this down, then you and I are getting naked and nasty, babe.'

'Should I be happy I helped you talk it out or disturbed that you want to have sex after a possible break-through in the case?' Honey-Milk laughed.

'Happy. The tip might not pan out, but you helped me think of a new line of investigation, and that always helps.'

When he was gone from the room, Honey-Milk stripped off her t-shirt and shorts, dug into her bedside table for the little box of massage oils Meredeth had given her on her birthday - all exotic fruit scents, and she decided to go with passion-fruit. It was one of her husband's favourite fruits to eat so why shouldn't she use it for their play-time too?

He came back in the room, and she saw the sparks of excitement in his eyes. He stepped out of his boxers, and pounced on her, rolling so she was sprawled on his chest.

'You are one sexy mama, Jenn,' he told her, pecking at her lips.

'I still feel like I could drop these last ten pounds from Mallory, though.'

'If you do or if you don't, it doesn't matter to me.' Ryan reached down, squeezed her bottom. 'Just reminds me you've had my two babies.'

Tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, Honey-Milk shifted to press her pelvis against his, then arched an eyebrow. 'Guess you're not so tired anymore, huh?' she said with a teasing smile.

'Naughty.'

'You love me for it.'

'Very much.'

When they were finished making love and wrapped together in the post-orgasmic drift, Ryan combed his fingers through her hair, down her back once more. His children meant the world to him, but he'd chosen the one to make them with, and he knew on days like today, when he'd come home late and she was there with understanding that he'd chosen right. There were the other times too when he'd come home late without a chance to call first and she'd given him shit for it, but whether he'd apologized right away or snapped back and they'd mutually apologized, his wonderful Honey-Milk was always there for him.

It made him think of Dandrea, that solid unit, and he made a mental note to call them in the morning, to make sure they were still holding on.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	27. The Interrogation I

'Hey I think I have something.'

'And good morning to you too.'

Ryan passed her coffee. 'I was in bed with Jenny last night,' he started and Beckett grimaced.

'I don't need to know that.'

'Like you and Castle don't get romantic. Anyways, we talked about families and the fight between Andrea and Gerry. What if Cora and Gerry are trying to get at the money Andrea would inherit on her marriage?'

'I thought of that too.' Beckett pushed up her sleeves, examined the murder board as her desk-phone rang. 'Beckett. Really. Okay, yeah we'll see you in ten.'

'Let me guess, Riley found something?'

'Oh yeah. And we've got Cora Gaffigan in the box at ten, and while we're waiting for Riley, we'll start looking into Gerry.' Beckett sipped her coffee to quell some of the rage in her stomach. 'Let's start with the usual suspects.'

They were just able to get the warrant issued for Gerry's financial and phone records when Riley appeared and they continued their multitasking morning in the conference room.

'Okay, we're going to listen to the first video. Just sound, no image.'

They listened as Fiona Birk begged for her life, but where the overlay of text had been in the video, they now heard the killer making a phone call.

_Yeah, it's me. One down, three to go. I'll talk to her, find out what I can. I'll worry about the messy jobs. You just worry about my money Cora._

'Son of a bitch,' Beckett breathed. 'This just keeps getting better and better.'

'I also got his face.'

'What?' Ryan and Beckett asked in unison.

'Remember that image you thought you saw of a man's, I cleaned it up and blew it up.' He reached in his bag, pulled out a couple of grainy but nonetheless very clear photographs. 'I've got Queen Latifiah running facial recognition databases, I'll let you know as soon as it pops.'

'Queen Latifah?' Beckett asked. 'I thought your main-frame was Bessy the Heifer.'

'Q-L suits her better. Big beautiful black mama I know better than to mess with.'

'You're right, that is better,' she agreed, then patted his shoulder as her cell peep-peeped. She grinned at the incoming text. 'Ryan you like ginger cookies?'

'Yeah, why?'

'Lex and RJ are baking but she goofed the recipe and will have about seven dozen cookies in need of a home.'

'Jenny loves ginger, so does Marsh-Mally.' Ryan glanced at his watch. 'We've got about an hour before Cora's coming up to Interview, and we're still about thirty minutes from getting the warrants on Gerry. What's the move, boss?'

'Update the captain, then make Cora sweat.'

* * *

><p>Unsurprisingly, Cora was alone in the box; the woman was far too arrogant to believe she was actually in any real danger<p>

'Morning, Cora, hope you had a pleasant evening. I sure did, the wife made Italian,' Ryan said with a cheeky grin. He loved when he got to be the smart-ass cop and Beckett played the femme card. 'Got to play with my kids and spend a little time with Jenny one-on-one.'

'Nice. Mexican,' Beckett replied pointing at herself, then opened her file to look at notes before smiling at Cora. 'How about you Cora, what were they serving in the holding tank last night?'

'You think this little routine is going to make me crack? Sorry to burst your bubble but I have degrees in economics and business accounting from Wellesley, I know there's nothing wrong with my books.'

'Oh, no we're not worried about the books.' Ryan gave her a well-practiced look, the altar boy with a dirty magazine under his robe. 'You'll be investigated by the SEC on those later. We're more concerned about this.'

Ryan pressed the button on a little Audiovox recorder, played the track Riley had procured for them. He watched with utter fascination as Cora blanched with each word.

'There's plenty of people named Cora in Manhattan,' she started, but Beckett neatly jumped in.

'Plenty of people named Cora who would have a vendetta against Andrea Hennessey and want her to call off her wedding and want to scare her into that with a couple of murders?' She paused. 'What's in this for you, Cora? Aside from getting off on your sister's misery?'

'No, she seems like she'd enjoy others suffering in general,' Ryan decided.

Cora went from white to red. 'How dare you sit there and accuse me of having something to do with this! I love my sister, I just want to see her happy!'

'Your sister is happy. She's a successful woman with a great career, she's in love with a wonderful man who loves her back. They want to spend the rest of their lives together. Does that sound like someone who is unhappy?'

'But Daniel doesn't give a damn about her! How could he when she looks like that?'

'Where were you the night of December third and December fourth?'

'What?'

'Where were you the night of December third and December fourth,' Ryan repeated for her like she was a slow child. 'Between the hours of nine pm and two am, and ten pm and

'At home in Westchester, I don't understand why you're asking me about my whereabouts.'

Beckett opened her mouth, then heard the buzzing of her phone, signaling that Montgomery wanted to see her. 'Excuse me for a minute.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	28. The Interrogation II

Beckett left the interrogation room, saw Montgomery waiting for her in Observation - as was Castle and RJ. 'What are you guys doing here?'

'They came down to see you in action. Cora's still holding on to what she thinks she doesn't know won't hurt her?'

'We'll work her out, sir.'

'Yea Mumum! Dash baddies!' RJ clapped his hand as he stood on a chair with his daddy holding him steady against the glass. 'I ssss.'

'Good job RJ.'

Beckett held out her fingertips which her son tapped, then decided to let Ryan work on Cora a little. Ryan in Interview was better than some sitcoms.

_Looks like it's you and me, Cora._

_Lucky me_

_Hey, just be thankful it isn't my usual partner. He's off on parental leave, his wife just had twins in October. _

_Congratulations_

'What is he doing?' Castle asked, baffled as to why Ryan had dropped interrogation ball. 'Shouldn't he put the screws to her?'

'Just watch, Castle,' Montgomery murmured.

_She's a lot like Andrea in a lot of ways. Very beautiful. Favourite child who inherited the majority of her grandmother's money. It has to burn you that there's three daughters, yet she gets nearly all of Daddy's money when he dies and the rest of her inheritance when she gets married._

_Andy was always our father's favourite. It's not surprising._

_But what is surprising is that you're the one in the soup over bad accounting yet it's Gerry making monetary threats._

'That's what he's doing, Castle,' Beckett murmured when they watched Cora's eyes go round as marbles. 'He makes people think he's a kitten. Or a dolphin,' she corrected herself. 'You're the kitten.'

'Thought we talked about that, Kate. And I wanna hear what she has to say on that.'

_If Gerry is offering to compensate Daniel for his troubles with my sister, that's her business._

_And yours, because you planned the wager together. Was the murder plot born from the wager or are they independent events?_

_I have no idea what you're talking about._

_Really, because I have a transcript here of a phone conversation between yourself and Andrea that says you were going to give her the money in the betting pool if Daniel left her on a day no one had chosen._

'Tag, you're in,' Montgomery said to Beckett. 'Go get 'em, tiger.'

Beckett nodded curtly, went back into the interview room. Up close, she could actually see Cora starting to perspire, a far cry from the neat-and-tidy June Cleaver clone she'd been two days before. 'Apologies, Detective, the captain needed to see me.'

'Cora was just explaining to me here why they started a wager on the day the wedding would be called off.'

'Oh yes. That's not working in your favour, Cora. What happened, was that not fast enough to get your hands on Andrea's inheritance, you needed her name linked to two murders so you could plug some holes for your bosses, maybe get your ex-stepdaddy's approval?'

'Andrea doesn't need the money nor does she need some asshole pretending to love her,' Cora retorted.

_The first crack_, Ryan thought. 'Andrea doesn't need the money, but you did? You borrowed a little cash from Murdock Holdings and when you couldn't pay it back, you decided to screw with your sister's relationship to get your hands on her two million dollars?'

'Yes, I mean, no-'

'Which is it, yes or no?'

'Yes I borrowed money against the MHC funds. I was late on my mortgage payments, they were going to take my house.'

'So you resort to embezzlement.'

'And that was wrong? I work day in and day out with six and seven figure accounts, they were all spending money left right and centre, you think they were going to notice a lousy seventy-five hundred dollars?' Cora gestured over her shoulder. 'And Andrea doesn't need that money, she's got a trust fun of twelve million from Dad.'

'Seventy-five cents or seven point five million, it doesn't matter, stealing is stealing,' Ryan pointed out. 'And there is Andrea's nice fat marriage gift bank-account. If she gets in trouble, that money goes to you and Cora. You could retire in Bermuda with your portion of that change, but where's the fun in that? You needed to teach Andrea a lesson.'

'She had no right doing what she did,' Beckett continued, the bitterness in her voice mirroring Cora's expression. 'How dare she decide to get married and take away all that lovely money when she's got plenty while you and your husband are barely making ends meet. So you dip into MHC once again, put the word out on the underground that you need some work done, the kind that will put the fear of God in Andrea and make that money all yours.'

'No.' Cora's face was almost childish the way it crumpled up. 'No, I did nothing like that.'

'Then tell us why the killer in the first video sent a call to your cellphone the night of Fiona Birk's murder.' Ryan shoved the transcript across the table for Cora to inspect. 'Or is this just another misunderstanding? A wrong number?'

'I...look, I took some money to make ends meet, but I had nothing to do with this.'

'But you knew about it?' Beckett said, pen in hand and hovering over her notepad. 'Who else knew?'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	29. The Working Lunch

A few minutes later, Beckett and Ryan were leaving the interrogation room while Cora was escorted back to holding by a burly uniform. They met with Montgomery, Castle and RJ at their desks, trying not to grind on the waiting pattern they were in once more. The captain only shook his head at his team.

'She asks for her lawyer there's nothing you can do,' Montgomery reminded his investigators. 'Given how much mud she's sunk into, you should be thankful you got as much as you did from her at all and the fact she wants to keep talking with her counsel present should tell you just how lucky you are.'

'I know, sir,' Beckett sighed, dragging a hand through her hair. 'I want her to go down for this.'

'She's only one part of it, you know that. Don't let her see how hungry you are. We need to get a name in case Riley doesn't come through.'

'I know that too sir.'

Mumum, Wyn, munshy?' RJ, who was sitting in Castle's usual spot beside Beckett's desk, pointed to the recycled-paper bags that read Monsoon on the side. 'Yum-yum time.'

'You and Daddy got brought us lunch?' Beckett leaned down, gave her son a kiss. 'Thank you, my little prince.'

'No nan-nalls, Wyn.'

'What?'

'No nan-nalls.'

'I think he means no animals,' Castle laughed, passing Ryan the vegetarian stir-fry with rice noodles. 'Meat-free.'

'Oh. Thanks little bro.' Ryan held out his hand and wasn't surprised when RJ tapped his fingertips. 'You gonna stay and help us get the bad guy.'

'No. Less tookies.'

'Alexis and Shane are doing some Christmas baking this afternoon when he's awake after finishing the night shift,' Castle explained, 'so we just came by with lunch and a friendly hello. We know you're busy, but we're going to stop by and visit Andrea.'

'Annie sad. Tookies bedda.'

'Cookies do help,' Beckett agreed, picking up a piece of crispy white-fish with her chopsticks. 'I'm sure she'll love them.'

Her computer beeped an incoming file and Castle watched both cops go into working-lunch mode; he tugged RJ's mittens on his hands, his toque on his head. 'Alright, RJ time to say bye to Mommy, we have things to do.'

'Bubub Mumum. Bubub Wyn.'

RJ gave them each a wave, then climbed into his pram, clapping his hands and mumble-singing about cookies while Castle pushed him to the elevator. Beckett smiled after them, then turned to her desk unit, saw the financial records on Gerry had come through. A few clicks of the keys and a few minutes later, she had the hard copies and was dutifully pouring through them while munching spicy peppers. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the months leading up to Andrea and Daniel's engagement.

Then things started looking a little funny. Chunks of cash in significantly large increments being deposited and withdrawn to numbered accounts in - hmmm - the Cayman Islands. Beckett wondered if those accounts would be linked back to Murdock Holdings Corporation, or if it was simply a thing of convenience they were based there too.

But what really perked her up were the phone records. The usual numbers were there - friends, work, wrong numbers, doctors - until right around the same time those cash deposits started showing up. No way could that be a coincidence.

As she began to manually track back all of the unusual guest stars on Gerry's phone-history, Ryan wheeled over, take-away carton in one hand and a sheet in the other.

'Check this out,' he said swallowing down his mouthful of rice and veggies. 'Gerry's credit card expenditures went from like everything to nothing just after the Thanksgiving holiday. Then all of a sudden, she gets a huge cash advance the night of the twenty-ninth.'

'That credit card is in her name only, she would be able to get a cash advance on it without her husband knowing. How much are we talking?'

'She's got a ten thousand dollar limit and only has room for two thousand five-hundred left on it.'

Beckett could feel the wheels clicking. She went back to the regular debiting records, began to highlight and calculate, went back to phone records where a certain number jumped out at her. When she was done she looked at Ryan with a toothy grin. 'I'm on to something here and if I'm right, it's better than _The Usual Suspects_. Or worse,' she amended, 'since two of our four victims are people we care about.'

'Andrea and Daniel won't see themselves as victims, but I get what you mean. What are you sniffing out.'

'A phone number.' Beckett took the sheets, pinned them on the murder-board, studied them as she mulled it over, then picked up the phone to call Riley Fontina. 'It's Beckett. You still have Fiona Birk's laptop? Can you run a full sweep, see if there is a second video of the murder on there? Thanks.'

Ryan watched her, could all but see the pieces floating around her brain. He watched her draw a little trapezoid diagram, label it; leaving his own work, he went over to see what she was puzzling out.

'Careful, Beckett, you're gonna break your puzzler on your first case back.'

'We need to go by Andrea's, check out a few things after we're done here. One thing most specifically.'

'Excuse me, Detectives.'

They both glanced over, saw Julien standing by the mesh-wire wall. 'Missus Gaffigan's counsel is here and ready to speak with you.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	30. The Interrogation III

When Beckett and Ryan went back in, they weren't surprised to see the lawyer sitting there in a power-purple suit, hair coiffed immaculately and her manicure matching the colour of her suit. Briefly Ryan wondered if it was like The Stepford Wives come to life in Cora's rarified world, until the woman spoke.

'Detectives, I am not here to bargain for my client in regards to the allegations of embezzlement, as that will be its own separate federal investigation. At this time Missus Gaffigan has requested to have counsel present, but has agreed to answer any questions to the best of her knowledge regarding the murder investigation provided that the result of her co-operation be probation for any possible involvement.'

'Probation for conspiracy to commit murder? What colour is the sky in your fantasy world, counselor?' Beckett asked smoothly, sitting down as she hooked her arm over the back.

'Conspiracy to commit murder in New York's the same as if Cora strangled those women herself,' Ryan added. 'And considering the circumstances, a DA or judge might think you're better off with a needle in your arm.'

'All I want is a chance to do the right thing before it's two late,' Cora said in a small, shaking voice.

Beckett had to bite back an oath but she opened her folder, picked up her pen. 'We need everything. Take us back to the night you came up with the wager.'

Cora nodded. 'It was after Andy and Daniel left on Thanksgiving. Gerry, her husband Bobby, my husband Sam and I were all having some wine and trying to figure out what to make of the news. We got a little too tipsy and Gerry suggested we should get a pool going, make a little bit of money to try and help Andy out after Daniel left her so we can show her we care about her.'

'What was your reaction when Andrea found out about the wager?'

'Upset she was so ungrateful, but Gerry was absolutely livid. She started spinning ideas that we needed to send her a message that her and Daniel were not going to last, that he doesn't really love her.'

Ryan had to literally bite his tongue. 'How can you be so certain of what Daniel feels?'

'Look at her. No man wants a walrus for a wife. Why do you think I never had children? My husband would leave me in a heartbeat when I started packing on the pounds.'

'Doubtful,' he replied, thinking of Honey-Milk, of how Esposito had hardly been able to keep his hands off Meredeth during her pregnancies; the same had been true of Lanie and Dave, even Beckett and Castle. 'Most men find their pregnant wives beautiful.'

'The point being I don't want to see my sister hurt, and I'm trying to help her the best way I know how. Anyways, Gerry was pissed, started talking about getting someone to send Andrea a message, to prove that Daniel doesn't care about her. But I didn't think she was serious until you called us down to the city to talk to us about that woman's murder.'

'Just to make sure I understand this,' Beckett said slowly, 'you are saying that Gerry masterminded two murders because you don't believe that your sister's fiance genuinely loves her and is going to bail on her?'

'Yes, of course, why?'

She said nothing, just played the voice recording Riley had copied from the video of Fiona Birk's death. 'You're telling me that doesn't sound familiar?'

'Yes, that's my brother in law, Dominick.'

'He called you just after midnight on Sunday night. Why?'

'He was on the west coast, at some kind of football series thing. He wanted to reassure me he hadn't forgotten about the renovations he promised to do on my basement.'

'That's his trade?' Ryan asked and Cora nodded.

'He's in construction. What's that got to do with this interrogation?'

'Because that call was made to you after he'd finished strangling Fiona Birk to death.'

'No.' Cora blanched white as rice flour. 'No, that's ridiculous.'

'Do you recognize this account?' Beckett handed over a copy of Gerry's financial data, and the woman nodded with familiarity.

'This is Gerry's Cayman account. It's how Dad wanted our cash inheritance set up to keep us from becoming spoiled brats. We report it all on our taxes.'

'Who else has access to it?'

'No one, not to my knowledge.'

'But you do,' she pressed. 'You could pick it out at a single glance.'

'I am an accountant. I have a head for numbers.'

'Who would she be transferring large sums of money to, only to have it replaced in that same account?' Ryan asked. He knew that Cora thought they were circling, unaware of the cage she was helping them build. 'Would she go to your ex-stepfather if she needed cash flow in there?'

'I honestly don't know. Look, I've told you what I know.'

'No you haven't. Not yet.' Beckett closed her file folder. 'Gerry went to your sister's apartment and offered Daniel money to leave Andrea. Andrea snapped at her and threw her out. Since it looks like Gerry's not above buying a hitman, how far would she go to make sure that Andrea and Daniel never got married?'

'If Gerry sets her mind to something, she won't rest until she gets her way.'

'Would she hurt Andrea?'

Cora only stared. 'Like I said, Gerry always gets her way.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	31. The Breakthrough

As Cora's lawyer insisted on a pause to consult with her client, Beckett gave them an hour; the first thing she did when she was out of the box was head for Brewster for a vanilla bean latte. She needed to do something with her hands to rid herself of the itch to throttle Cora. Ryan apparently had the same itch, as he came into the break-room and did the Esposito trick of shoving the soft-drinks machine so it would spit out a free Sierra Mist.

They drank in silence for a few minutes, both giving the other the little bit of breathing room they needed before Ryan piped up, 'So that phone number, has it panned out yet?'

'Still waiting on records.'

'Who do you think it might belong to?'

'I don't want to say in case I'm wrong.'

'Fair enough.' Ryan drank more of his soft drink, sighed. 'I'm still trying to wrap my head around their motivation for all of this nonsense, you know? I have three sisters, I can't fathom any one of them going for the throat like this.'

'Your sisters fight.'

'Of course, females growing up together like that are bound to pull hair and scratch but at the end of the day they're not going to abuse each other and tell them they are too fat, too skinny, too this, too that.'

Beckett sipped her coffee. She thought of when Meredeth had been pregnant with Tessi and the insecurity she'd felt over her initial weight gain, and how Honey-Milk had kicked her ass. That's what sisters did, to Beckett's way of thinking, they would give you a boot in the rump when you wanted them to hold your hand. They told you straight, and didn't try to warp your mind and sense of self esteem.

'My question is where is Andrea's mother in all of this? I mean, I know she and her sisters are grown-ups but you'd think that she'd be just a little concerned,' she commented.

'My mother still calls Dana every night before bed.'

'Creepy.'

'The point being, she's involved, even though we're all grown up too and she's a grandmother.' Ryan frowned. 'You think maybe that's why Gerry and Cora don't have kids? That they _can't_ and their coping mechanism is to take it out on Andrea?'

'That could be part of it, but it's also been going on since Andrea was a teenager.'

'Right. Sir.'

Ryan straightened up a little when Montgomery came in the break room. The captain had his grumpy-face on, which was never a good sign.

'You've got Cora in the stir, what about moving on the sister and finding the killer?'

'I think we know who our killer is, Captain.' Beckett drained her coffee mug. 'I was studying all the phone records and Cora claimed when she got that call from her brother-in-law he was on the west coast, however we traced it back and it originated in the warehouse where Fiona Birk was murdered. We're digging on Gerry and the brother-in-law, and if it pans out, there's a fourth person in the conspiracy to pull in, but not until we get the other ones lined up.'

'You say they're lined up, so go knock'em down.'

'Yes sir.'

Beckett went back to her desk and began to do the run on the brother-in-law Cora mentioned, Dominick Fitzpatrick; like the rest of them, he was Irish Catholic, as was understand from his baptism certificate. He also had a couple of knocks for assault and a retraining order from an ex-girlfriend after one of those assaults was committed because she'd been talking to a co-worker at the holiday Christmas party. Beckett studied his mug-shot, nodded.

'Beckett,' she answered her phone, and was excited to hear it was Riley Fontina.

'Hey, got your enhancement, and it popped on one Dominick Fitzpatrick. Don't know how much that means to your investigation.'

'Makes me wanna give you a great big hug, Riley. Shoot it over.'

'You got it.'

Beckett hung up, avoided jumping up on her desk to do a happy dance. Instead, she rolled over to Ryan, grinning like a cat with a mouthful of budgie feathers.

'You're going to want to give Riley a big sloppy kiss.'

'I'd rather save that for Jenny.'

'His Queen-Latifah gave us an ID on the guy in the video. Dominick Fitzpatrick, Gerry's brother-in-law.'

Ryan looked at her. 'Tell Riley next time he sees me, he better pucker up.'

'I think we can figure out why those deposits were going in and out of Gerry's account in such a strange pattern. What if that account was a joint account with her husband and Dominick was depositing it?'

'Circular financing. Very clever on Gerry's part, getting her brother in law with the record to commit murder on the promise that he'd make money off of it, when she's really.

'There still remains one question,' Ryan pointed out. 'How did Dominick know to pick those people?'

'We know it's not Cora or Gerry, they didn't have any knowledge of the wedding plans. Andrea and Daniel refused to tell them.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah, they said as much when they were over for dinner last night.' Beckett chewed on her lip, went back to the board. 'It had to be someone who knew she had those people in mind for her wedding. Someone who could innocently overhear her and Daniel and I can only think of one person who has both the motive and the access.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	32. The Gamechanger

Beckett made it home just after nine with a very specific plan in mind. She and Ryan had stayed late to lay the groundwork for the next day's arrests, and now Beckett was more than ready to go home and jump her husband's bones. They were so close to putting all the puzzle pieces together that by this time tomorrow, they would have three more people in custody.

More, she would be able to tell Andrea that family wasn't always the people related by blood. Beckett knew that better than anyone. She'd met the young woman she considered her daughter when she was fifteen years old; once Beckett and Castle had been married, she'd started calling her Mom and for Beckett that unconditional acceptance meant the world to her. Others, too, in their family had found their way into family - Meredeth hadn't realized when she'd started dating Esposito that he came as part of a combo-plate, and she was now their resident chef who made sure everyone was fed whether it was a time of crisis or celebration. And of course there was Dave, who'd given up the idea he would ever find someone he'd want to make a family with. Five years and two babies later, he and Lanie were stronger than ever.

Even her own husband fit that bill well, Beckett thought as she unlocked the door to the loft. He'd been an only child in a single-parent family and had been a single-parent himself - no one could ever accuse Gina of having been the maternal type - and made a little family of sorts with the people he'd come to admire and respect, and yes love, at the Twelfth Precinct.

When she walked in, she wasn't surprised to find Alexis in the kitchen with RJ sitting on the counter in his pyjamas as she stirred something in a bowl.

'Yum, yum Less.'

'You've never tried these kinds of veggies, how do you know they taste good?'

'What are my chefs up to tonight?' Beckett asked walking in, making RJ wiggle on the spot excitedly.

'Mumum! Dash baddies?'

'We got one of them today and we're going to get three more tomorrow.'

'Yea!' RJ slapped his palms together. 'Mumum bess. Less bess too,' he added, turning gooey eyes on his big sister.

'Shane's on overtime tonight, and Sloan's out of town, so I decided to hang here, make you dinner,' Alexis informed the detective. 'We're having stir-fry and noodles tonight, a little change after a couple days of heavy meals.'

'Good idea. Is your father home?'

'Ussairs,' RJ informed her. 'He widing lots.'

''I'll go and see how he's feeling.'

'Take this little man with you,' Alexis told her, adding whole-wheat pasta to the sweetly sauced veggies.

'No' noozy.'

'RJ, we had a deal, you got to stay up a little later tonight to wait for Mom, then it was bed time

'No!'

'Fine, then no cookies tomorrow when I'm baking for Andrea.'

RJ's expression was mutinous but he inched forward on the counter, held out his arms towards his mother. 'Wan' tookies.'

'Just like your daddy,' Beckett laughed, putting her baby on her hip. She blew a big kiss on his cheek, making her baby squeal.

'No diddle, Mumum!'

'Okay, no tickling. Where's Omeo?'

RJ pointed to the crib where Beckett had to laugh - the well-loved rabbit RJ couldn't live without was tucked under the blankets like he was napping himself. 'Omeo noozy.'

'Now it's your turn.' Beckett tucked her boy into the crib, made sure Omeo was within reach. 'You want a story?'

'Dizzy book.'

'Okay, we'll read Tessi's book.'

She found the book Tessi had given RJ on his birthday - a beautiful copy of_ When Turtle Grew Feathers_ - and began to read softly; she'd barely made it halfway through when Beckett heard the little buzzing noise that was her son's snoring. Moving like a ghost she put the book away and kissed RJ's forehead before going to her own room. Not surprisingly, the other big man in her life was also asleep and for a moment, Beckett watched him wondering if Castle knew just how much RJ was already like him - the little flaring nostrils, his right hand palm down in the middle of his chest while his left kept something soft nearby.

Changing into her comfy clothes and putting her badge and gun into their proper places, the cellphone on the night stand Beckett crawled into bed beside him as snuggled against his bare body. 'Hello, handsome,' she murmured.

Castle's sucked in air sharply through his nose, opened tired blue eyes. 'Hey sweetie. You're home early.'

'Actually I'm late. It's almost nine-thirty.'

'I need to wake up,' Castle mumbled, 'I have to get the last chapter outline to my publisher by nine tomorrow and I'm only half-done.'

'I think I have something for that.' Beckett laid her lips on his; when she drew back, the fatigue was gone from his eyes.

'Well, now, that's one way to go. Of course I like this one better too.'

He wrapped his arm around her body, rolled so she was underneath and began to root at her throat, making her giggle.

'Castle, knock it off,' she laughed, then reached for her ringing cellphone. 'Beckett.'

'It's Ryan. We have a problem.'

'What is it?'

'I just got a call from Daniel. Andrea never made it home tonight.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	33. The Dam Bursts

Beckett's blood went to ice. 'Where are you?'

'On my way out the door. I called Riley, he's already tracing her cell and the captain's still in his office.'

'I'll meet you at the precinct.' Beckett felt sick to her stomach. She stared into the void for three seconds, then sprang into action. 'Where are my...pants, I have to go, I have...'

'Kate, what's wrong?' Genuinely worried, Castle watched her frantic movements. 'What happened?'

'Andrea never made it home.' Beckett dragged her hands through her hair, clenched her fists, then began to put her work clothes back on.

Castle got up out of bed, dragged on clothes. 'I'll come with you.'

'What about RJ?'

'Alexis is here.' So saying, he went down the hall, pounded on Alexis' door. 'Lex, honey, I have to leave with Kate. You're in charge of RJ.'

'Okay,' was the sleepy response, and it was satisfaction enough for Castle, he went downstairs to get some bottles of water from the fridge; they were out the door and down to the garage for Beckett's Crown Vic in record time.

'What's the move?' he asked Beckett when they were pulling out of the garage.

'Go to the precinct, get Riley's trace, find out where the hell she is.'

'Is it possible she's at a friend's?' he attempted lamely; they both knew the real story.

'Not a chance. Daniel said she's been texting him if she so much as goes downstairs for their mail. He wanted to have her tagged with a tracking bracelet just as a precaution. I need to- We have to get to the precinct, see if...dammit, dammit dammit. I should have known better, I should have put a uniform on her. But it wouldn't have mattered because the killer is her brother-in-law.'

'Seriously?'

'Yeah. We have his voice and his face,' Beckett told him.

'Not that I'm trying to tell you how to do your job, but what's been the hang-up sniffing him out?'

'He's smart. He used the subway service lines to avoid being on camera, he's not going to be sloppy enough to leave any self-trace. And he was being paid in a circle, I'll explain later,' she added when he looked at her baffled. 'We have no fibres oreed to catch him in the act and unfortunately, he went after Andrea instead of someone else. But why?'

'I'm sure once you're done kicking his ass he'll tell you.'

'Well I've got another ass to kick before his.'

'I'll hold your coat, dear,' he said with a little smile.

* * *

><p>She stormed off the elevator, saw Ryan coming out of the break-room with a bottle of water for her. 'You called Riley in?'<p>

'He's running it as we speak.'

'Good. Where is she?'

'Julien and Diego just brought her up. She's got her lawyer with her.'

'Even better.'

Not bothering with any niceties this time, or to wait for her captain to be in Observation, Beckett stormed into the room with one-way glass and slammed the door behind her, loud and hard enough that the glass shook. At the table sat Cora, now in a regulation jumpsuit; orange was not her colour.

'Detective, back so soon?' Cora asked with a little sneer. 'Have a little chat with your friends at the DA on my behalf?'

'Andrea never came home to Daniel tonight, Cora. Where is she?'

'How the hell should I know? I've been in solitary confinement all evening.'

'Detective, I,' the lawyer started, then stopped with Beckett froze her with a single stare. 'I am done playing games, so here's what happens now Cora. No more solitary. You go into population and they'll just love you. Skinny white girl who can't fight back, you'll be like a candy-cane to them. I can stop that from happening if you co-operate. Give me the name of the man who took her.'

'Fuck you.'

'Sounds like an alias. Give me the name.'

'Fuck you.'

Beckett unholstered her weapon, put it on the table but left her hand on it. 'Give. Me. The. Name.'

The sight of the gun had Cora's eyes going from cocky and cool to hot tempered in a flash. 'Dominick. Dominick Fitzpatrick.'

'Your brother-in-law?'

'Yes. That night he called me, he was talking about how he'd taken care of the woman Andrea wanted to cater her wedding. I had no idea it was murder until you called us down to the city to ask us about it on Monday.'

'Where would Dominick take Andrea, Cora?' Beckett demanded.

'I don't know.'

'Don't know or won't tell?'

'I don't! All I know it's in some place called the meat-packing district, where he'd done some construction for MHC.'

'See I knew you had it in you,' she replied with a feral grin. 'We can now add obstruction of justice and lying to the cops to your list of sins, and the conspiracy to commit murder charges will be sticking as well.'

Cora turned the colour of wallpaper paste, then beetroot red as she stared at her lawyer, who looked horridly flustered at this new bit of information. 'Can't you do something?'

'I need a moment with my client.'

'Take all the time you want,' Beckett suggested. 'Your sister Gerry will be joining you shortly.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	34. The Rescue

Beckett came out of interview like a rocket, saw Castle, Ryan, Julien the desk uniform and Montgomery crowded the computer. 'Cora said he'd have her somewhere in the meatpacking district.'

'Riley got a lock on her signal, he's narrowing it down,' Ryan informed her.

'How long?'

'A few minutes.'

'Guys!' Riley's voice came through the speaker phone. 'I've got her. Twenty-nineteen Coulson Avenue. It's a housing development owned by Murdock Holding Corporation at Sixth and Coulson.'

'Sixth and Coulson,' Ryan repeated as they took off for the elevator. 'We'll put out the APB to all the cars and the paramedics. Andrea's a scuba diver. That means she's strong, patient, and unexpected. Let's go!'

Ryan and Castle leaped into the elevator with her; no one said nothing until they were in the garage. 'Ryan you follow us. Castle, you're driving,' Beckett told him through her teeth. The moment they were inside, the radio was in her hand in an instant as Castle peeled out of the garage. 'All available units, this is One-Lincoln-Forty. Converge on two-zero-nineteen Coulson Avenue at Sixth Street, abduction and assault in progress, suspect is potentially armed and dangerous, call for Saint Vincent paramedics.'

'This is probably the wrong time to mention it, but you sound so sexy when you're in command,' Castle commented as his eyes stayed glued to the road, the gumball flashing and the sirens.

'Actually, it's perfect. This woman's own family turned on her because she didn't meant their twisted and warped standard of beauty. I'll take every last compliment you throw my way. Here, here, here!'

Cars moved out of their way like the parting of the Red Sea as Castle made a wild left turn south; incongruously, a line from 'Little Deuce Coupe' popped into Beckett's mind. They were at Twelfth Street when she glanced in the review mirror, saw the panda-patrollers fall in behind Ryan. Reaching around her body, she checked her side arm, made sure her back-up piece was in place.

They mounted the curb and Beckett jumped outwith Ryan right behind her. Weapons drawn, they breached the door together.

'NYPD!'

'Police!'

'Andrea! Andrea Hennessey!'

They waited, heard nothing, but when Ryan went to open his mouth Beckett held a finger to her lips. Then he heard it - the sound of an enraged female scream from one of the back rooms. Leading with their service pistols, they followed the noise back, clearing the other rooms as they went. The last one they came to had the door shut, making Ryan briefly wonder just how loud that scream had to have been for them to hear it. Beckett gave them a count of three, and then kicked it to splinters and not a moment too soon.

Andrea and Dominick were grappling on the floor, Dominick trying to get his hand on Andrea's throat and Andrea giving the man a wild swinging right hook. The punch landed slightly out of luck, mostly out of fury square in Dominick's pug nose. Blood fountained and shock gave Andrea the leverage she needed. She rolled, and holding Dominick by the shirt-front hauled him up and clocked him again.

'Andrea!' Beckett thought about firing a round safely into the floor to get her attention, but Andrea was riding on fury.

'Touch me again, I dare you, you bastard!' she hollered, winding up and getting in a few more short-arm jabs on Dominick's face. 'You stupid fucking loser!'

'Andrea!'

In her rage Andrea's fist shot out, landing on Beckett's cheek. It had her momentarily seeing stars, but she was still a cop thinking on her feet. Beckett holstered her weapon, grabbed Andrea around the torso to drag her off.

'Andrea, it's over!'

'Let me at him,' the woman snarled. 'I'm not done with him yet.'

'It's over, he's out. Look.'

Andrea's stared down at Dominick, saw he was down for the count. Out of breath, she slumped backwards against Beckett which sent them both to their butts on the dirty, scarred floor. Her knuckles were bruised and swollen, covered in blood from the man's nose. 'I punched him. Hard.'

'I can see that, champ.' Beckett put her fingers to the unconscious man's throat, nodded. 'And he'll live to pay for his sins. Paramedics!'

The two EMTs rushed in, began to examine Andrea while Beckett saw to it the perp was handcuffed and receiving her own medical attention.

'Jeez, Kate, you didn't to...call the...caval...'

She never made it to the last syllable as Andrea passed clean out in Beckett's arms. She looked at the paramedics, who nodded in understanding.  
>'Adrenaline comedown,' one of the said. 'She'll be with it in a few.'<p>

'What about getting her medical history, any allergies?'

The other paramedic shook her head. 'There's a very agitated young man outside with Mister Castle and Captain Montgomery who wants to see her. Big blonde fellow.'

'That would be her fiance.'

'Daniel,' Andrea mumbled, her eyes fluttering open. 'Daniel, where's Daniel, is he okay?'

'He's outside with my man, he's awfully anxious to see you.'

'I gotta go see him.' She wanted to get up and run to him but felt like she had the energy and stability of a newborn deer, on top of which the paramedics were loading her onto a stretcher.

'Easy, Miss Hennessey, we're hooking you up to an IV of glucose and saline.'

'Okay. And it's Missus Brick,' she added as she faded once more.

'She'll be in and out for awihle.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	35. The Bombshell

The paramedics loaded Andrea onto a stretcher while Ryan directed CSU into the room, then seeing to escorting Dominick out to a squad car with the understanding that Beckett would go with Andrea. She nodded, caught up to the woman being wheeled out; even on the stretcher as they left, Andrea was still talking to Beckett.

'They didn't break us, Katie,' she sighed, 'they didn't even come close. Where is my hubby to be? Will he meet us at the hospital?'

'He's here,' Beckett reassured her. 'He's outside with my hubby.'

'Your hubby's hot. He's like a sexy bear. The Irish one, he's a honey too,' Andrea babbled. 'Honey-Milk's honey is a cutie, and their kids are so cute. I hope Danny Boy and I have an ocean of babies just like them.'

'That's a first.'

'What is?'

'You never call him Dan or Danny.'

Andrea gave her a sleepy smile. 'Danny sounds like a little boy. My man's all man. And Andy also sounds like a little boy. I'm a hot, sexy, curvalicious woman.'

'With a mean right hook,' Beckett added, rubbing the spot on her cheek.

They made it outside, and she immediately saw Daniel and Castle standing with Montgomery by the ambulance. There was a sick wash of panic over Daniel's face when he saw Andrea immobile and the other men made no move to stop him from rushing over to her. The panic was downgraded to worry when he approached and heard her talking about sharks to Beckett; he was ready to start weeping but wouldn't let himself. Not yet. Right now, Andrea needed him to be her rock more than ever.

'Sparing with my trainer isn't enough for you?' he laughed softly as they moved to the ambulance.

'Eh, you know me, always looking for a reason for fight.' Andrea sighed, then was under again while the EMTs loaded her into the wagon, Daniel climbing in behind them as he told the paramedics she was allergic to Demerol and even though they were most-of-the-time safe during sex, checking her out for a hitch-hiker wouldn't be overkill.

Montgomery looked at Beckett, winced. 'Nice shiner. The perp give you that?'

'Andrea. A wild swing when I was trying to pull her off the suspect. It's fine, just a little tender.'

'And the suspect?'

'With Detective Ryan. He'll be transporting him while I go with Andrea to the hospital. She'll be able to give me a statement in an hour or so.'

'Do it,' Montgomery ordered her softly. 'This jackass can cool his heels for a little while.'

'Sir, it's Andrea's brother-in-law.'

The veteran cop shook his head as he put hands on his hips. 'This just keeps getting better and better. Go take care of Andrea, I'll brief Ryan when he comes out.'

Beckett looked around, saw Castle had stepped away to take a phone call and he was coming back over. She felt her own zip of discomfort when she heard her husband using the voice that meant their son was on the other end of the line. 'What is it?' she asked.

'Hold on, big guy, Mommy's right here.' He held out his phone. 'He had a bad dream. He was being chased by baddies.'

'Mumum?' RJ's voice was pitifully young and scared. 'Pidies dash me.'

''Oh, my little prince, it's okay. There's no spidies chasing you.'

'Wan' you.'

'I promise I'll be home as soon as I can. We got the bad guy making Andrea upset.'

'Yea!' At this news, RJ's mood brightened considerably. 'Good shob, Mumum!'

'I have to go to the hospital with her. The doctor wants to make sure the bad guy didn't hurt her.'

'Moosh Annie.'

Beckett chuckled. 'Okay, I'll give her a moosh for you.'

'Love Mumum.'

'Love you too.' She handed the phone back to Castle, who mouth 'love you too' at her, and Beckett climbed into the back of the ambulance; the first thing she did was take her friend's hand as it shot out from under the blanket.

Once at Saint Vincent's, Andrea was taken into a trauma room where she was given the once over while Daniel and Beckett waited in the hallway outside. There was small comfort in knowing that the people who were trained for it were taking care of her now, more in knowing that Detective Ryan was hauling her attacker into the Twelfth Precinct. Neither said anything, knowing it would just be filler to pass the time. Beckett fidgeted in her chair while Daniel paced short width of the hallway, waiting to hear anything. Finally, a man with broad German features in pale green scrubs came out.

'Doctor Walsh, do you have anything to tell us, is she okay?'

Walsh nodded solemnly; Daniel didn't take it to mean anything. Everyone on staff knew Walsh was stoic as a funeral director. 'She'll be just fine. There is no sign of head trauma or any internal injuries, most importantly there is no danger or risk to your baby. Now that being said, we're still going to keep you overnight for observation, just to make sure there isn't anything we've missed and to make sure the rest of the lab tests we've run come back okay. You can see her shortly.'

Walsh looked up from his notes, and was taken aback by the utter shock on the nurse's face. 'Is there something wrong?'

'You said nothing's wrong with the baby?'

'Yes,' Walsh said hesitantly. 'You didn't know she's pregnant?'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	36. The Calm Before the Storm

Daniel just stood on the spot reeling. Pregnant, Walsh had said. Andrea was pregnant. He tried to get it together and when he failed to do so, Beckett picked it up.

'Doctor, I think it's safe to say this is a surprise to them both.'

'It isn't very old, maybe two or three weeks at most but Andrea is showing no signs that she is going to miscarry, even after her little scuffle.' Walsh pulled out his cellphone, sent a message to a colleague. 'I'm going to call in Doctor Harvey, get him to talk to you both. In the meantime, I hope you get whoever did this.'

Walsh went back into the room while Beckett's wheels began to turn. She made a call home and wasn't surprised to hear Shane was wide awake.

'Hey Detective, what's happening?'

'I need to ask a solid from you and Lex, Shane. I need you to bundle up RJ and come down to Saint Vincent's to stay with Andrea.'

'Andrea? What's going on?'

'Long story, I'll fill you in once you're here. Andrea's one of our family now, she needs us.'

'Done.'

Beckett hung up, then turned to Daniel. 'I know you want to be glued to her side, Daniel, but my children are coming to stay with Andrea because I want you to come with me down to the precinct, so you can see what happens when someone tries to mess with our family.'

'Okay. Do...do you need to take her statement?'

'I'll take a preliminary, but the fact that we have him at the warehouse in a battle with Andrea is enough to put him away for assault and abduction, and we're using that as the springboard to the murder. Plus, I've got a secret weapon in my squad.'

The door to the trauma room opened and Daniel forgot everything else except the woman covered from her sternum to her toes with a stark white sheet who was being wheeled to an elevator. She didn't open her eyes until they were off the elevator into one of the hospital wings and being wheeled into a room. They were definitely clouded with some kind of medication, yet her voice was soft and clear.

'Daniel? Are we still in the ER?'

'Hey, there's my girl,' he said, taking her hand while being mindful of the IV tubes. 'How are you feeling?'

'Sleepy, but I wanna talk to Katie. She needs me to tell her what that fuckhead did so he goes away for a long time.'

'She's not on any drugs, doctor's orders,' the nurse whom Daniel didn't recognize told him. 'We're just keeping her here to get some rest and make sure there's nothing else we've missed.'

'Thank you, Jackson,' Andrea mumbled, eyes focusing on hers and Daniel's joined hands. 'Have I been in and out very long?'

'Just an hour. I don't like telling you this Andrea but Daniel needs to come with me down to the precinct,' Beckett told her gently. 'My son and daughter and her boyfriend are coming to stay with you.'

'Okay. Daniel needs to tell you his side too. What?' she asked, focusing on his face. One look at him and she knew there was something else. 'What's wrong? You look like someone canceled _Top Chef_.'

'Nothing is wrong, sweetheart,' he replied, and though he wanted to break down and weep on her bosom Daniel found himself laughing. 'In fact, something is going very right for once in this shitty week. I love you so much, Andrea Darcy Hermione Hennessey.'

The door swung open and Harvey strolled in; Beckett immediately gave him her chair. 'Andrea, something came up during your exam in the ER.'

'I knew it, you coulda told me,' Andrea said with a light swat at Daniel's arm. 'What's up?'

'Let me put it this way. As of today, you are both my colleague and my patient.'

'Your...' She trailed off, eyes going round as saucers. 'I'm pregnant?'

'About three weeks.'

'I didn't know.' Andrea looked at Daniel with an almost desperate plea. 'You know I'd never keep something like that from you.'

'I know, sweetheart. It's only three weeks old, you wouldn't have even noticed you're late.' He kissed her brow. 'And it's a curve-ball but I love you and we'll figure it out. We always do.'

As Andrea began to weep and Daniel held her close, Beckett stepped into the hallway to give them some privacy, then saw Shane and Alexis stepping off the elevator, RJ snoozing in his pram. She met them, told them what was going on; when she turned back Beckett saw Daniel stepping out of the room. Introductions were remade, as Daniel remembered Alexis from RJ's birth, and he turned to Beckett.

'She's just composing herself before all of you come in. Thank you for this.'

'Hold that thought until you see what happens at the precinct.'

* * *

><p>When they arrived at the Twelfth, Daniel stayed with Castle and the captain while Becket found her secret weapon getting coffee.<p>

'Hey, how's Andrea doing?' Ryan asked, passing her a fresh latte.

'Still loopy but she's fine. So's the baby.'

It had the effect Beckett hoped for - Ryan's eyes sharpened to flinty blue stones. 'Andrea's pregnant?'

'Yeah. Just a few weeks, but she's definitely expecting.'

'I want this one.'

'I knew you would,' she murmured, following him out as he retrieved two burly uniforms.

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	37. The Hurricane

She saw Castle and Daniel by her desk, gestured for them to come with her. The trio went into observation and found the captain there with such a look on his face that all he was missing was the popcorn.

'Daniel, I know you want to get back to Andrea but trust me you want to see this,' he told him as Dominick smirked at Ryan. 'There is no one better in the box than Kevin Ryan when a pregnant woman's welfare is at stake.'

Inside the interrogation room, the slim Irish detective had Julien and another uniform named Gibson standing post in the room. All three had stony expressions that showed not the slightest bit of humour. Dominick smirked once more, adding a sneer this time.

'You need some back up, there string-bean?'

'No, they're here for your protection.' Ryan's voice could have frozen titanium. 'And trust me, in a little bit you'll be thankful you've got them here.'

'What, you wanna try and fight me, little man?'

'No. I'm gonna kick your ass.' Ryan braced his hands on the sides of the table, leaned down so his nose was half an inch from the killer's. 'So let's start with Fiona Birk.'

'Don't know who that is.'

'Sure you do, she's the woman you and Gerry decided should die because she was Andrea's wedding caterer. She was a mother and a wife, she made cakes for a living and played a mean game of Texas Hold'Em. But you decided none of that mattered, all that mattered was getting even with Andrea, right?'

'Someone needed to send Andy a message, according to Gerry, but it wasn't me.'

'Huh, so that-' Ryan pulled out a still from Fiona's death video '-isn't you after you strangled Fiona Birk-' he pulled a smiling home candid from his file of the lovely woman before her death '-and were about to make this call to your sister-in-law?'

He played the recording and watched as Dominick shifted a little in his chair. _Not so cocky now, are we,_ Ryan thought gleefully. 'Tell me something, Dom, does it keep you up at night knowing you're destroying innocent lives because two of your sisters are so twisted up with jealousy over the third one, or do you get off on it?'

'I never said I was the killer.'

'Oh, that's a stupid move. We know you killed two people and we also know that Andrea beat your ass down to the ground. That has to burn you got the shit kicked out of you by a girl.' Ryan deliberately turned his back on him to look in the two-way mirror. It was a move that said he wasn't worth the time of day; Ryan refused to call him a man, as he knew what a real man looked like and Dominick Fitzpatrick didn't fit the bill.

'She's just a dumb whore,' Dominick scoffed. 'She thinks she's gonna marry that loser Brick? He isn't even having sex with her.'

'He told you that?'

'Come on, look at her. Who'd want to fuck that sow?'

In the observation room, Daniel watched as Ryan's face changed from stony gargoyle to avenging angel and swallowed. 'I see what you mean by secret weapon, he muttered to Beckett, watching fascinated as the detective turn back to his suspect and Dominick visibly gulped.

'That sow?' Ryan said in a low, controlled voice, and for a moment Dominick thought he was looking at the Devil himself as Ryan's voice began to rise with every word. 'That sow someone would never want fuck, you say? The _woman_ that you abducted, that you mentally tortured, whose family you hurt and scared, who beat the everlasting crap out of you until you were unconscious, is pregnant.'

It did the trick, as Dominick blanched like an almond, but Ryan was on a roll even as he mentally quoted his favourite line from _Sin City - Gotcha you little bastard, let's see you hop around now_. 'You snatched a mother and her unborn child off the street in broad daylight with the intention of killing them both,' he all but roared, 'and I swear on my children's souls if she looses her baby, if you put her and her fiance through the hell of losing their baby I will make sure you are charged with its murder too. I will put the word out to every lowlife in prison who got a fair shake from me and let them know you are a baby killer.'

'No-'

'You know what happens to baby killers in the slammer, right Dominick?'

'Please-'

'That's right, practice your begging. It only makes them enjoy it more when you plead for it to stop, because they don't play nice and just rape you. They make you _suffer_, make you feel every last ounce of pain and anguish you caused someone else, someone innocent who doesn't deserve to know how ugly the world can be.'

'I'm not a baby killer, I swear to you! I only did those other two for the money.'

'Everything has its right price,' Ryan sneered, 'you decided two lives should end because you were hard-up for a few pesos?'

'No!'

'Then tell me, no bullshit, straight from the start.'

In the observation room, they watched as Dominick started to spill his guts, and Daniel let out a shuddering breath. Beside him, Beckett put a supportive hand on his wrist while on the other side Castle clapped his shoulder.

'This is what we mean when we say you've been adopted. We take of our family.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	38. The Last Piece I

In the interview room, Dominick Fitzpatrick discovered that there was more than one way to be a tough Irish blackguard and Detective Ryan was living proof of that. The man hadn't so much as clenched his fist and Dominick was singing like Darren Hayes.

'It started after Thanksgiving, after that damn wager.'

'Who came up with that one?'

'The girls together and when Andy blew the whistle on it, Cora was ready to let it go but Gerry...' Dominick shook his head. 'She's mentally unstable, though I think you've figured that one out for yourself. My brother told me she's been on medication since she was a teenager for some kind of personality disorder.'

'Right.'

'Anyways, after she realized that wasn't enough to shake Andy, Gerry was getting more and more pissed off so I tried to calm her down and tell her that short of committing murder it looked like they were going to have to indulge Andy a little more. She got this crazed look in her eye like she was actually considering it. Am I gonna be, like, snitching on Gerry by saying this?'

Ryan was more than a little amazed by the fact that this guy thought it worse to be a snitch on his sister-in-law than be a gun for hire and facing two counts of first-degree murder, abduction and assault, but he kept his face placid. 'She's being brought in for murder charges as we speak.'

'Why? It's not her fault. I'm the one that killed those two people.'

'Here's the thing, Dom.' Ryan folded his hands on the table. 'She paid you to commit murder. That's called racketeering and in New York, along with conspiracy to commit murder, it's the same in the eyes of the law as if Gerry twisted that silk around their throats herself. Bottom line is that you are in deep and the best option you have is to keep doing what your doing and giving me everything so that when the DA looks at this case, she'll think you only deserve life in prison.'

'What would be the other option?'

'Lethal injection,' Ryan said brightly with a grin. 'Still think you're a jail-house snitch or are you going to do what you do best and save your own ass?'

'I didn't consider it until three days later, when I was told that my job would be on lay-off until next April. Like I said before, I need the cash. My wife likes nice things and she's starting the whole 'when are we going to have a family' talk and I couldn't tell her I'd gotten the pink slip. Gerry's got tonnes of money and I knew she would love to help me out and take care of the Andy situation in one fell swoop.'

This did it for Ryan. He started to talk, then cut himself off several times; at a total loss for words. He got up from the table, did a little pace back and forth to try and put into words just what he was feeling. When he finally was able to come up with something, he stayed on his feet far away from Dominick so that he wouldn't given into his baser, protective-male instincts and throttle the man.

'Do you understand how friggn' _absurd_ this sounds? You make it sound like she is a menace to society who is hell-bent on destroying your lives, some monstrous criminal who is stealing from you or a dangerous mobster. All Andrea did was meet a nice man whom she fell in love with and who loves her back, so much so that he wants to make a life and a family with her. What the hell is so wrong about that? Don't answer.' Ryan wagged his index finger in impatience. 'I am only thirty-nine years old, I don't want to have a stroke so young. Let's keep going. What ultimately made you decide to go through with this?'

'The nurse in the ER at Saint-Vincent's. I told Gerry there was no logical way to make Andy see reason until I cut my hand on the job site and this nurse was stitching me up, and I tried to charm her out of her shitty mood. Turned out she was pissed off because of Andy was showing off her new engagement ring at work and that she had to put on her happy face about while Andy was spouting off ideas for her wedding.'

Ryan felt the tingle, the pieces shift. 'What kind of ideas?'

'Like she'd tried this cake at some kind of party and was thinking of doing an official tasting with the baker, and this other guy, this florist who did this votive-candlestick centre-piece at another wedding she'd been to.'

'Would that be Fiona Birk and Francis Reinhold?'

'Yeah, those were the names she mentioned. Girl sounded like she needed to let loose, so I told her I knew of a little place that we could go to if she had a moment.'

'You had sex with her.'

'Yeah. My wife doesn't know, though, any way to keep that from her?'

'I doubt it,' Ryan said dryly. 'In fact, I'd put money on her already knowing you laid some pipe off the job-site.'

'Whatever. Point is, this chick was more than willing to give it up in exchange for blowing her wad over Andy.'

'I need a name.'

'I don't know. The opposite of Andy. Petite, great tits, tiny ass, you know a real woman.'

Ryan fought grinding his teeth. 'I need a name,' he repeated.

'Only got her first name. Kailey.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	39. The Last Piece II

'I have just one more question for you, Dominick.'

'What's that?'

'Was it worth it?'

Dominick blinked, shook his head. 'I don't follow.'

'Well let's look at this. Your goal was to break up your sister-in-law's engagement to the man of her dreams who loves her exactly as she is. Instead Daniel and Andrea are still stronger than ever and starting a family, while you four are going to prison for double homicide, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to murder, aiding and abetting criminals, embezzlement, filing fraudulent business documents, assault with intent to kill, abduction, and obstruction of justice.' Ryan ticked the points of his fingers. 'I've actually run out of room on my hands and that's just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head. None of you will breath natural air again in your life time so all I can ask you is, was it worth it?'

'The moment Daniel leaves Andy, we will all be proven right, so I suppose it's just a matter of time. Inside prison or out doesn't matter. And I'm going request my court-appointed lawyer to see me in the morning. It's been a long day and a night in the clink ain't gonna bother me.'

The 'Wow' slipped out before Ryan could check it, but it didn't matter anyways. Dominick was already lost in his own world of self-righteousness. He studied the man's broken nose, the bruising eyes, the split lip that had been taped up and wondered how long the man would last. As Ryan had no more questions he needed to ask, he left the man in the room with Julien and Gibson to meet Montgomery, Castle, Beckett and Daniel in the bullpen. Before he could even open his mouth, Daniel had enveloped the detective in his tree trunk-like arms.

'Thank you.' He looked around, patted his pockets. 'I should call Andrea, let her know what went down here.'

'We can do better than that.' Beckett held up a copied disc. 'Andrea and you were as much victims in this as Fiona Birk and Francis Reinhold. To that end, we extend you the same professional courtesy and permit you both to view the confession of the criminal. Captain?'

'I see no harm in that, Detective Beckett,' Montgomery nodded. 'On top of which, I think it's time to call it a night and maybe grab a cold one. I'll make sure we get a meeting with the ADA mid-morning. Consider yourselves off-duty until you hear from me tomorrow morning.'

'I'll stop at Genarro's, get a few sandwiches.' Castle gave his wife a kiss, winked at her before turning to Daniel. 'Does Andrea have any allergies?'

'Bee stings.'

'Too bad, Genarro's makes a mean bee-sting club. I'll see what I can scare up.'

* * *

><p>Despite the late hour, Beckett and Daniel were admitted up to Andrea's room without so much as a raised eyebrow by the nurse on reception; Ryan had decided to go with Castle to take a breathing moment before seeing their friend. Unsurprisingly, Andrea was still awake. Lying down in bed on her side with a bowl of green-grapes as she watched a video with Shane but wide-eyed awake. Overtired and can't shut down, Beckett decided. At the new bodies in the room, Shane and Andrea both glanced up; the latter paused the video and set aside her fruit.<p>

'Hey guys, didn't expect you back so soon.' Andrea sat up, crossed her legs as Daniel came over and kissed her. 'We're watching _Anchorman_.'

'Where's Alexis and RJ?' Beckett asked.

Shane pointed vaguely. 'Lounge, more space for them to stretch out. RJ was getting a little fussy.'

'I'm going to go see them. Wanna come with?'

Being no dummy, Shane could read between the lines and nodded, stepped into the hallway to give them a moment's privacy. Beckett pulled up a chair beside Andrea and Daniel, who had climbed into bed beside his fiancee, slid the disc into the player. 'I want you to see this, Andrea.'

She pressed play, watched her friend's face react to what she saw on-screen - Dominick's cockiness that was stonewalled by Ryan, then the detective's barely-controlled rage that dissolved the killer's bravado like salt in the rain, finally Dominick's confession to Ryan. When it was done Andrea let out a shuddering breath.

'All this madness because someone else decided I didn't deserve happiness? Fuck that, Kate. Fuck that senseless on a Sunday. After everything they did to me as a teenager, picking at my self-esteem and making me feel like nothing, I damn well deserve a happy relationship and a family. And I've found it,' she declared, gripping Daniel's hand tightly.

'Well, just wait until the others get wind of this. You'll be flood with family. Which reminds me, if you feel up to it, on Saturday we're having a girls night at Marty and Teeny's.'

'Oh, um...' Thrown by this generosity, Andrea chewed her lip. 'Can we play it by ear? Daniel and I have a lot to talk about the next few days.'

'Of course, just let me know either way.'

'Thank you, Kate.'

'You're one of us now, and we protect what's ours.'

Beckett stood up, gave Andrea's forehead a sisterly kiss; she headed down to the lounge and saw Alexis with a bleary-eyed RJ on her lap. 'Hey, my little prince,' she cooed at him. 'How's my big boy?'

'Seepy. Dash baddies, Mumum?' he asked, curling into her body when Beckett took him into her arms.

'Yeah, we got the baddies, my little prince.'

'Yea Mumum.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	40. The Andrea Story

As Beckett had predicted, news of Andrea being in the hospital had spread like wildfire amongst their friends. Within the hour, Andrea's phone in the room was ringing off the hook while Daniel began receiving texts two at a time from those not on the phone with Andrea. When Ryan and Castle arrived, they had in addition to the promised sandwiches a small bouquet of flowers.

'Jenny insisted that I bring these when I called her,' he told his wife's colleague. 'Rest assured, when she starts at eight tomorrow morning, you're her first priority.'

'That's so sweet.'

'And we also brought you something to eat.' Castle passed her a recyclable container. 'It's their version of a binto-box. Sandwich, salad and chips, and I figured since caffeine is off limits now, you'd like some nice soft apple juice.'

'Thank you Richard.' Andrea bit into the sandwich; the flavours of turkey, mozzarella and roasted red peppers burst in her mouth. 'Oh, man that tastes so good.'

Daniel watched her as she attacked her meal, chuckled a little. 'Easy killer, it's a choking hazard to swallow that all at once.'

She laughed, swallowed her mouthful. 'That's what she said.'

'There's my dirty girl.' Daniel leaned over, kissed her cheek as he chewed on his pork-belly Reuben. 'I knew you were still in there.'

'I know we're off record right now, but I would like to tell you what happened. Might help me get some sleep, you know?'

Beckett dipped a pretzel into the honey-mustard sauce. 'Okay, if you think it will help.'

'I was doing some Christmas shopping and I was feeling okay, but still off, so I decided to go the Gift-Express, that parcel delivery service down on Bleecker Street. I'd dropped my gifts off there and was on my way to get a tea, maybe do a little more window browsing. I called Kailey Sampras to ask her the name of that jewelery store she'd seen in the West Village. I went into Loose Leaf for tea for the subway ride home, and my brother-in-law Dominick was there. We're not especially close but it's not like gravy-ladles at ten paces at family gatherings. We start talking and without even thinking, I told him about this place I was thinking of visiting for cake-tasting and I had to run. I'd just turned away with my tea when I felt something poking into the small of my back and Domincik leaned in, told me not to move because he had a gun aimed at my kidneys.'

Andrea paused for a sip of her apple juice. 'He said we were going to walk outside to the subway, and take the train to the meat-packing district. If I tried to run or use my cellphone, he would put a bullet in my spine. I was too shocked and way too scared to really process it so I went along with it, thinking keep it together, keep it together. Don't let him see how afraid you are, don't let him think he's got the upperhand and try to find a way out.'

'Did he drug you?' Daniel asked worriedly.

'No. I was awake for it all. He took me to that housing project, into the room you found me in and set up this DVD player so I could see Fiona's murder and Francis' murder. He said if I hadn't been such a stubborn little bitch, those two people would still be alive. It was my fault they're dead, that their families would blame me.'

'No one blames you or Daniel, Andrea,' Ryan assured her. 'We called their families, told them we had the murderer and they just wanted to know if you were okay too.'

Andrea's eyes filled up a little, and she dabbed at them. 'That helps. That definitely helps. Anyways, he made me sit on the floor, take off my boots and my coat. I have no idea where my purse was, because all I wanted to do was call Daniel. He slapped me around a little, told me I was going to call from his phone, tell Daniel I didn't love him and I was running away because I was ashamed of the . Dominick had it written out, this little script he wanted me to read. Only I refused to say it, so he knocked me around a little more. Kicked me in the ribs a little, slapped me in the face, used his belt on the soles of my feet.'

'Baby.' Daniel didn't bother to swipe at his eyes as he listened to her tell it. 'You're so strong, Andrea. You have no idea.'

'I just looked at him and finally said I love Daniel the only way you'll break us up is over my dead body, and he said that was fine with him, and that's when he came at me. He kept trying to get his hands around my throat but he didn't count on me being so pissed off. When he said that he'd talked to you, Daniel, at Thanksgiving, he said you were already tired of me and trying to think of how to get rid of me. I screamed at him it was a lie and then we really went at it. I remember I punched him and then the next thing I know, you're there pulling me off of him.'

'This is why I wanted you to wait. You only remember punching him once, right?' Beckett asked.

'Yeah.'

'You knocked him unconscious.'

'My hero.' Daniel leaned in, gave her a romantic kiss and in a move that touched them all, rubbed a hand on her belly below her navel. 'That kid's got Wonder Woman for a mom.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	41. The Night at Home III

When Ryan made it home at nearly one in the morning, he wasn't at all surprised to find Honey-Milk sitting in the living room drinking tea and reading a trashy romance book.

'Hey,' he said softly, locking the door behind him. 'Figured you'd be up.'

'Couldn't sleep, not when you called and told me about Andrea. Did...is she okay? Does Harvey think she'll miscarry?'

'No. Andrea and Daniel both said she checked out fine, this baby isn't going anywhere.'

'Oh, thank god. That's really good to hear.'

Ryan sighed as he sat on the couch, flopped over so her thighs provided his heavy head with a pillow. 'It's been a long day, Jenn.'

'I bet. The kids were asking about you, Dell especially. He's very worried about Andrea.'

'Yeah?'

'If there's a woman who could ever threaten to take away the Grand Empress of All Beauty in the Cosmos title our son has bestowed upon Tessi Esposito, it's Andrea Hennessey. He wants to make sure she's okay.'

'I'm not going in tomorrow until ten, I'll take Dell to school.'

'Oh he'll love that.' It wasn't often he husband got to do that very simple parental thing. He was able to do the night-time things, like helping with homework, parent-teacher interviews but as his job often started earlier in the morning, Dell was often the one waking up to give his father a hug and kiss goodbye. 'He loves when you take him to school.'

'He ever get angry with me?' Ryan wondered out-loud suddenly. 'That I'm not the dad who hands him his lunch before he gets on the bus or drops him off by the playground entrance?'

'No, of course not, Kevin. Where did that come from?'

'Just...thinking about Andrea and how it was her sisters, her brother-in-law, a trusted co-worker all plotting against her for no other reason than she was just being herself. I know I was born to be a cop, but I also knew I wanted the pretty wife, the family, and now that I have them...I wonder if some days I let them down because I'm not a nine-to-five guy.'

'You listen to me, Kevin Thomas.' Honey-Milk poked and prodded her husband until he was sitting upright; she took his face in her hands so she could stare into those worried blue eyes. 'You have a wife and children who are proud of you every day because you're out there making sure that families who have been torn apart by death have answers. You put your life on the line because you believe in the basic ideal that helping those in need is most important in this world. Does that mean it's all rainbows and kittens for us? Hell no, but I don't know of anyone else in this world who loves you more than Dell and Mallory and I.'

It broke him, that quiet voice with such fierce determination, and Ryan laid his brow on her shoulder as he let out a few shuddering breaths. He felt his wife's slim arms come around him, holding him close and gently rocking him. 'It's okay, my love,' she murmured softly.

'Daddy?'

Ryan's head snapped up at the sound of his son's voice and for a moment, saw a little version of himself. He was in his blue-and-green tartan pjs, rex in tow as he knuckle his eyes. 'Hey, little man, what are you doing up?'

'I am thir-suh-ty and I heard your voice. Why are you sad, Daddy? Did you not get the bad guys for Andrea?'

'No, we got the bad guys for Andrea, it just made me very sad who the bad guys turned out to be.'

'Oh.' Dell walked over, crawled into his father's lap and hugged him around the middle. 'But you got the bad guys, Daddy, that is what is most important. They are going into the suh-lammer and they can't hurt her now.'

'The slammer?' Ryan laughed. 'Where'd you hear that one?'

'Uncle Javi. He said jail is called the cuh-link or the suh-lammer 'cause that's the sound the bars make when they are cuh-losed.'

'He's not wrong.'

'I'll let you have a little time together. Don't be up late, Dell, it's a school night.' Honey-Milk kissed her son's head, let her men have their time together.

Alone in the living room just the two of them, Dell held his rex to his ear, nodded and said, 'Okay.'

'Okay what?'

'This.' Dell bopped Ryan's cheek with the nose of his stuffed toy. 'Rex said you needed a dino-moosh.'

'Thanks rex. You want a fizzy-water or the regular kind for your drink?'

'Regular, puh-lease.'

They went into the kitchen, Dell sitting at the table while Ryan poured him a glass. 'So, tomorrow morning, I'm going to take you to school Dell.'

'Yea.'

'Do you ever get mad that I don't get to do those kinds of thing a lot?' he ventured, and relief was strong as an undertow when Dell shook his head. 'No?'

'No, Daddy. You have a very important job, you catch the bad guys. Who's going to do that if you're taking me to suh-chool?'

'Dell, you are the best son I could ever want.'

'Needles and all?'

Ryan chuckled. 'Needles and all.'

'And you are the best daddy ever.' Dell slid off his chair, hugged his father tightly. 'I love you, Daddy. Thank you for the duh-rink. See you in the morning.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	42. The Loose Ends

The next morning, Beckett awoke with a little bit of a start and lay staring at her ceiling, drumming her fingers on her naked belly. She had Castle had been so exhausted after making love the night before they hadn't even bothered to redress in case Alexis came in for something. Now, in the early morning light, it seemed as though every last one of her nerve endings was aware of the soft linen against her skin.

'Do you mind putting a little grease on the gears in your head so they don't make so much noise gnashing away,' Castle mumbled, eyes still closed.

'Sorry. I just keep going over and over in my mind if we did the right thing last night, not going after Kailey once we had Dominick's confession.'

'I think it's the smart thing. Gives you a chance to get more on her so that her lawyer can't punch holes in it, saying all you had was Dominick's word.'

'You're right,' Beckett conceded, making Castle pop up like a Whack-a-Mole.

'Strike up the band. When's the last time you said that?'

'Don't go salivating. You're coming with me and Ryan.'

'I am?' Castle looked like the family dog hearing the news he'd get to go for a car-ride. 'You sure?'

'Yeah. Today's, what, Thursday? Shane's on call so he's at home sleeping and Alexis is hanging here to do some Christmas wrapping, so she'd be kicking you out anyways.' Beckett paused, turned to look him in the face. 'Richard, this one hits close to home, and it means a lot to me to have you there when we close it for Andrea and Daniel, and Fiona's husband and son, and Francis' son and daughter-in-law. I want...I need you with me on this one. I know you've been here, keeping things on an even keel at home but I'm being selfish today and I want you with me in that room when we take Kailey and this chapter of Andrea's life can close.'

'Okay. Then let me start by making you pancakes.'

'After last night, you _definitely_ owe me some pancakes.'

Castle grinned. 'Syrup or strawberries?'

* * *

><p>Despite the captain's orders, Beckett wasn't surprised to see Ryan taking off his winter coat when she stepped out of the elevator at eighty-thirty. He looked relaxed and happy, and offered her a wide grin when he saw her sit down, tuck her purse into the bottom drawer of her desk.<p>

'Top of the morning to ye, Beckett.'

'Good morning, Ryan,' she giggled; he was always just a little more Irish when he'd gotten the good stuff from his wife. 'You're awfully chipper this morning.'

'I got to take Dell to school.'

'Oh, that's awesome.' Beckett knew how much he loved those moments with his son in the morning since he got so few of them. 'Are he and Mallory and Jenny going to visit her this afternoon?'

'Yeah. Dell said he was going to use arts and crafts time at school today to make her a get-better card.'

'So sweet. You ready to make sure it stays sweet for them?'

'Hell yeah.'

Beckett nodded, literally pushed up her sleeves. 'Okay, first thing, we need to get Dominick's phone and bank records, and the transcripts from his cell so we can show them off the Kailey, let her know we've got her talking to him. We're going to push on the conspiracy charges and aiding and abetting, as well as accessory after the fact.'

'We'll make it stick.' Ryan sipped from his travel-thermos of coffee, a little domestic touch from Honey-Milk. 'Will we drag her right out of Saint Vincent's or will we play it soft?'

'We'll play it by ear. Castle's going to meet us once we're done with the DA this morning so that'll be a factor too.'

'That's going to play a lot into Kailey's hand. He does that guilt-trip thing better than anyone.'

'Guilt-trip thing?'

'Maybe it's a guy thing, I don't know.'

'What did I tell you two fools?'

Beckett and Ryan looked over to see Montgomery walking towards them from his office, button his jacket as he did so, which had them gulping a little. 'Sir, we thought we'd come in a little early, work on building the case so that after the DA's office we would be going to Saint Vincent's to arrest Kailey Sampras,' Ryan informed him, making his captain sigh.

'You two can't listen to your CO and take an extra hour for sleep.'

'All due respect sir, we'd rather be here now, get this sewn up so that we have more time when it's done to see Andrea and Daniel,' Beckett replied confidently. 'We want to take them the news that it's wrapped and in the hands of the DA now.'

As Montgomery could respect that, he only dragged a hand over his face and sigh. 'You get a pass on this one, but next time it will be my foot in both your asses.'

'Noted sir.'

'Now, show me what you've got on Kailey.'

* * *

><p>When it was time to go to Saint Vincent's, Ryan sighed. It was the second time in four days that he'd had to go to his wife's place of business on his own business. Worse, this time they were going to be arresting a pediatric nurse for conspiracy for murder. He saw Castle waiting for them by the entrance, face sober.<p>

'Detectives. Let's get this thing done.'

* * *

><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	43. The Last Piece III

They'd already paged Honey-Milk, told her what they needed, so when the trio stepped off at pediatrics to see Honey-Milk at the nurses station, there was only solemn recognition in her face.

'Detectives,' she greeted them. 'I understand you need to take Kailey in for more questions.'

They all knew it was more than that, but for the sake of keeping the peace in a hospital, Beckett nodded. 'Yes, Nurse Ryan. I need you to page her.'

Honey-Milk nodded, sent out the call. It burned her that someone she and Andrea had both worked with, both trusted with children's welfare and she would do whatever she could in her power as a dedicated medical professional, mother, friend and human being to make sure that no one else suffered at her hand.

When Kailey showed up, Beckett briefly wondered if the nurse might bolt, but saw the light in her eyes was annoyance, not fear and certainly not knowledge.

'Detective Beckett, Detective Ryan, I've already told you everything I know.'

'We have different questions this time, Kailey, that need answering downtown,' Beckett replied softly but firmly. 'You are going to be advised of your rights and if you so choose, you may have an attorney present.'

'I understand, it's just a precaution.'

The way she said it had something sparking in Ryan's brain and he realized as they made their way back down to the car: Kailey was clueless. In her mind, she'd just hooked up with some random cute guy at work to whom she could vent her frustrations about Andrea. She had no idea that the information she'd given him was just what Dominick had used to find, stalk and kill two people. Her involvement was more bad luck than anything.

He kept it to himself until they arrived at the precinct, until they'd sat Kailey down in an Interview room and they were getting her the politely requested Sprite from the vending machine in the break-room.

'Beckett, I know you want to nail her to the wall, but we already have Cora, we already have Gerry and we most definitely have Dominick. You know that the DA won't be able to get a murder charge to stick. Accessory after, sure, maybe even aiding and abetting but you think she's going to go down for conspiracy to commit murder?'

'We're going to read her rights, we're going to inform her of charges pending, and how many we pursue is dependent on her co-operation. You know it's the only way we will really give Fiona and Francis justice.'

Ryan sighed, shook his head. No one ever said being a cop was easy, he thought miserably when he and Beckett turned into the Interview room. This would not be the hard-line ball-busting battle of wills that had happened with Dominick and Gerry; this would be the good girl in school who unwittingly gave away the answer sheet to the final exam.

'Kailey, you understand why you are here?'

'Something to do with the case that involves Andrea and Daniel.'

Beckett nodded, then pulled the booking shot of Dominick from her file-folder. 'Do you recognize this man?'

'Umm...yeah, yeah, I do. He said his name was Dom, he's a construction worker who came into the ER and needed a treatment for a gash on his hand. We, ah...hit it off and had a couple of horizontal dates, you know? Kailey offered a sheepish look, then studied the picture. 'What happened to his face?'

'This is Dominick Fitzpatrick, he is Andrea Hennessey's brother-in-law. He killed the baker and the florist Andrea was considering using for her wedding. How do you think he came by that information.'

Now Kailey went white as chalk. Now, the wheels started to turn as she looked at the crime scene photos and Dominick's face. 'No,' she pleaded as hot, scared tears began to flow. 'No, no, no. I'm not a killer, I'm not! I had no idea who he was! How was I supposed to know this hunky construction guy in the ER turns out to be someone with a vendetta against Andrea!'

'Kailey, you had the most tangible motive for wanting Andrea and Daniel's wedding to be called off,' Ryan reminded her. 'You tried to get him on your hook and he wasn't biting, because he was in love with Andrea. I understand wanting to pull a little bit of 'Hand That Rocks the Cradle' on her.'

'I didn't want revenge, I wanted it out of my system. You think I wanted to still be hung up on them being an item? I've been in personal counseling since last New Years to try and get over it,' Kailey sobbed. 'I saw how Daniel looked at her and wanted with all my might for him to look at me like that but he never did. Not once. When I heard they were fighting a little just after Hallowe'en, I thought it would be my chance to finally give it a go with him, but then...'

She trailed off, tried to compose herself. 'Andrea came to work, said they were engaged and it was nearly a year of therapy down the toilet. All those old feelings came back and here was this cute guy, willing to have sex with me and let me vent my anger. It seemed too good to be true.'

'A little advice, Kailey,' Beckett said as the woman put her head down on the table, breaking down completely. 'Something seems a little too good to be true, it probably is. We're going to be charging you with accessory to murder after the fact and I will put a good word in for you with the DA, but don't be surprised if you do time.'

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><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


	44. The Wrap Up I

By the time Kailey had finished sobbing her heart out and given them every last detail she knew about, Beckett, Ryan and Castle were full of nothing but pity for the pathetically love-lorn woman. They'd left interview to find that ADA Ian Link and Captain Montgomery were waiting for them in a conference room, where Ian decreed that in hearing her confession plus the rest of the evidence on Gerry, Cora and Dominick, Kailey wouldn't do time.

'She wasn't a victim as Fiona and Francis were, nor like Andrea and Daniel, but neither had she been a party to the plot concocted by Cora, Gerry and Dominick. She'll lose her medical license, and she'll get probation for obstruction of justice,' he informed the two detectives, making Beckett's eyes burn hotly.

'She's as much to blame as the rest of them. Without her passing on that information, two people wouldn't be dead and a third wouldn't have been abducted, brutalized and now in the hospital.'

'You've gone through her phone and financial records with a fine-tooth comb. She did not conspire to have those people killed, it was Dominick who used her, as a stroke of luck more than anything. Should she have said that she had talked to this guy about Andrea and Daniel's wedding in the first place, absolutely, but beyond that I can't see anyway to concretely link her to this.'

'What about the fact her father is the CEO of Murdock Holdings Corporation?' Castle inquired, studied the attorney's face.

'That's incidental,' Ian replied, 'same with the fact that Cora was cooking the books. That just came down to her not wanting to lose her job. In this economy and the comfortable Westchester life she has, she couldn't bear the thought of losing it all so she did what she thought she had to do.'

'And the rings?'

'Gerry had Cora purchase them for her, saying they were going to be some kind of door-prize or draw prize at a company event, then passed them to Dominick,' Ryan explained. It had been one of the more gruesome details that came up when they'd gone into an even more in depth confession on the murders, not just Andrea's abduction. 'Gerry worked for the PR firm that also handled MHC business and since Cora was in charge of the money, it wasn't too hard to finagle that, especially since Gerry knew her sister could work a little financial magic on the ledgers.'

'So that's it then. Gerry and Cora were so consumed by this black vileness for their sister that they went to the extreme lengths of killing two people and putting their own sister and her unborn baby in jeopardy.' Montgomery sighed. 'This is not one of the times I'm glad to be a cop. Breaking up a family like that is devastating.'

'To be fair sir, these people may be Andrea's blood kin but they are by no means her family,' Castle said. 'The worst thing Alexis ever did to me was fill my toothbrush with soap and even then it was an April Fool's joke. Andrea and Daniel are ours now.'

There was a moment of silence in the room, as everyone understood what Castle meant. Beckett took the time to think on her own family - being an only child hadn't meant lack of affection, and getting through the dark years after her mother's murder had made the bond with her father grow stronger. Then Castle had come into her life and turned everything upside down. She'd become closer to Esposito, and Ryan and Honey-Milk outside the job and once her relationship with Castle had officially become a romantic one there was the addition of Alexis and Martha in a far more intimate way too. Then Meredeth had come along which meant Lili and Cam were added to the equation being friends with Meredeth; she in turn had brought Robina with her and that had changed Gil Mazzara's life too. All those connections they'd made until they thought of each other as brothers and sisters where it really counted; hell, their children referred to the other grown-ups as aunts and uncles already.

Finally it was Ian who broke the quiet. 'Captain, do you have anything else to add from your investigative team?'

'No, Ian, not at this time. They've done a spectacular job on this one, given its very personal nature. At this time, I think it's most important to give Andrea and Daniel, and the Birks and the Reinholds some closure.'

'You know we'll need to subpoena Andrea and Daniel when we get to the preliminary hearing, if it goes to trial. Given that you have these confessions, the only person I can see contesting it is Gerry and even then, it's not going to take a lot to convince her to take a deal,' Ian pointed out.

'They'll do whatever they need to in order to make sure the people who hurt them are punished as far as it will go,' Beckett said firmly. 'Answers, even the ones that cause pain, help the healing in the long run.'

'I know.' Castle brushed a hand over her arm, knowing she was thinking of her mother. He made a mental note that night to make breakfast-for-dinner; it always made her feel better whenever thinking about her mother really got her down. 'They'll make it through because you guys did your jobs and brought them swiftly to justice.'

'Okay, time to go hike the paper-trail,' Ian sighed, standing up. 'Roy, always a pleasure.'

'Ian.'

Montgomery waited until the ADA was gone, then turned to his detectives. 'Good work you guys. I really mean that. When family is involved, it's never easy. Now, take an hour, go talk to Andrea and Daniel, and report back here.'

R&R&Enjoy


	45. The Wrap Up II

_Hello all my Crumbsians! I feel so sad about this, but this one is coming to a close! I'm so glad to see how much all of you have enjoyed it and how you have really taken in Andrea and Daniel as part of the Twelfth family just like the rest of them (NCISchick & tayababy, I'm looking at you!). Not to fret my cheeky monkeys, there will mos-def be more Dandrea stories coming your way soon! For the last time on this one, pass the word and share the love!_

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><p>'So that's it then? It's over?'<p>

'It's over.'

'I...I don't know what to say.'

Beckett smiled softly at Andrea as she tugged on her shoes; Daniel had gone to pick-up the discharge papers so that the two women could have a few moments alone. 'I know there's no easy way to look at it, considering they are your blood relations. I know the name of a good counselor you can see if you think you want that.'

'I might. I don't know how I feel right now. It's been a heady twenty-four hours.' Andrea laughed, looked at herself in the mirror. 'Better take a picture, huh? It's the last I'll look like this for awhile.'

'How do you feel about the pregnancy, Andrea?'

'I don't know. Guilty, I guess for not knowing how I feel.'

'You're allowed to feel uncertain. You know Lanie Parrish-Robbins, right?' When Andrea nodded, Beckett continued, 'she was blindsided by her pregnancy and it took her a couple of weeks to be okay with it, even love the idea of being a mother. Now her and Dave are going to try for a third one after Christmas.'

'Really? But...Lanie's, like...perfect.'

The laugh bubbled up from Beckett's belly like foam from a champagne bottle. 'Lanie is far from perfect, as we all are. The point is, Andrea, forcing yourself to feel something you don't won't help.'

'Does that go for daddies too?'

Andrea looked over and Beckett saw an expression of such love on her friend's face when she saw Daniel in the doorway it was a wonder song-birds didn't appear in a halo around her head. 'Sure it does,' she said as the man came in, gave Andrea a tender kiss. 'I have every faith you'll work it through, and in about nine months, we'll all be here for you.'

'Really?'

'Of course. I'll say it until my tongue falls out. You and Daniel are ours now. We take care of our people. You'll let me know about Saturday?'

'Sure. But if I say no, you'll understand?'

'Absolutely.' Beckett felt her phone vibrate in her pocket signaling her time as up and sighed. 'I have to get going. Take care, we'll talk soon.'

Andrea nodded, then wrapped her arms around Beckett's shoulders, pulled her to her ample bosom. 'Thanks again.'

Beckett patted her back, then braced herself when Daniel gave her the same treatment and headed out to the elevator.

It shouldn't have surprised her that Castle was at the car, waiting for her with a fresh coffee and a waxy paper bag she knew would contain a . 'I thought you were on your way home?'

'I was, then I smelled something yummy and thought you could use it after telling Andrea the only blood family she has left is going to prison for the rest of their lives.'

'Not one of the perks of my job. She's so upside down, Rick. I can't imagine what she's feeling right now.'

'She's strong and she's got a great man standing by her side. One thing you two already have in common,' he teased her, which earned him a shove. 'Andrea Hennessey isn't a sissy or a suck and she will get through this. We're going to have her and Daniel over for dinner on the twelfth for dinner.'

'Oh?'

'Mm-hmm. Then you're going to take her out, just you two while I have the boys over for poker night.'

'Well don't you have that sewn up so nicely?' But Beckett relented, knowing it was what their friends needed. 'I really hope she doesn't cancel on Saturday night. I think it would really help her to be included. Besides, we can make it a night of celebrations.'

Castle rubbed a hand over her arm. He knew beneath her armour was a marshmallow heart whose needle always pointed true north when it came to those she loved. 'You're a good woman, Katherine Louise.'

'And tonight, believe me, you're going to find out just how good.'

'Oh.' He pressed a hand to his heart, then grinned as Ryan walked out the doors with a relaxed and happy look on his face. 'Detective.'

'Hey, Castle, you riding with us back to the precinct?'

'No, I'm going to head home, I've got some Christmas wrapping to do. You, ah, missed a button, there, sailor.'

Ryan glanced at his shirtfront; he knew he'd missed one in his haste to redress in the on-call room. 'Dammit, I knew I didn't get them all, but...' he trailed off, blushed red as a beetroot when he realized his shirt was fine and Castle had lassoed him into admitting to a lunch-time quickie with Honey-Milk. 'I hate you.'

'You love me and you know it.' Castle grinned, then kissed his wife. 'Take care of my cop. Love you.'

'Love you too.'

When he was out of sight, Beckett turned to Ryan with a stern look. 'Don't you have any self-control?'

'She pinned me to the wall, I just gave her want she wanted,' he protested, making Beckett roll her eyes.

'And I'm sure you put up one hell of a fight.'

'My wife's a hot nurse, Kate. Can't help myself. Don't you ever get all loosy-goosy seeing Castle hard at work?'

'First I'd have to see him work,' she started, then pulled her communicator from her belt. 'Beckett. Yeah. Okay, we got it. Come on, Ryan. we got another one.'

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><p>R&amp;R&amp;Enjoy<p> 


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